JOIN US Three weeks after accusing former finance minister Chidambaram’s son Karti of illegally maintaining 21 accounts in foreign banks, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday levelled fresh allegations that the family has undeclared property in the United Kingdom.
Swamy wrote a fresh letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking action against Karti and his father Chidambaram by way of a probe by CBI, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax Department.
While Karti had rebutted the allegations on Twitter in February, Chidambaram or Karti were not available for comment. Karti had then said some “outrageous claims” were made about him and that his filings are “up to date and completely in compliance” with regulatory requirements. “My family’s and my assets are duly reflected in our I-T filings. My companies have made all declarations as required by statutory requirements,” Karti had tweeted.
On February 25, Swamy had accused the finance ministry and the I-T Department of not acting on the inputs against Karti such as maintaining 21 accounts illegally in foreign banks.
These accounts were apparently “unearthed” during a probe by Director General (Investigation) of the I-T Department in Chennai some months ago.
In his latest letter, Swamy told reporters, he had included details of an Income Tax investigation that compiled the “huge illegal investments abroad”. The letter claimed that Karti’s family had jointly purchased a property in Cambridge town in 2008.
He claimed that P Chidambaram had not declared this property in any of his affidavits while contesting polls to the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha. Karti, who unsuccessfully contested the 2014 elections, had also not declared this property, Swamy said.
The six-page letter claimed that Karti had opened a wholly owned subsidiary of Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd in Singapore “illegally”.
The letter also said that British company Diageo Scotland Ltd, which “acquired” beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya’s UB Spirits, paid USD 15,000 as “service charges” to Karti’s company for fixing appointments with the then prime minister Manmohan Singh and the then finance minister Chidambaram.
Swamy also claimed Diageo’s emails “thanked” Karti for arranging the appointments.