IT dept searches premises connected with Karti Chidambaram

Officials of Income Tax department and the Enforcement Directorate on Monday conducted searches at "some places" of bussiness associates connected with Congress leader Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P Chidammbaram."Some searches are happening at this point of time", a senior Income Tax investigation department official told agency.The official declined to comment on where the searches were undertaken by the department but sources said three premises were searched on Monday.Sources said, "certain companies" including a private eye care chain in which Karti Chidambaram allegedly had a stake, were being searched by the two agencies.They said while the IT had undertaken the action on charges of suspected tax evasion by these firms, the ED was a part of the searches in connection wityh their investigation under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).Despite repeated attempts Karti Chidambaram was not available for comment.In August Enforcement Directorate had issued summons to two directors of a firm linked to Karti in connection with its money laundering and hawala probe in the Aircel-Maxis case.Sources said the summons were sent to the firm 'Advantage Strategic' after the agency's probe found that Rs 26 lakh has been sent from the firm to Aircel Televentures.The Aircel-Maxis deal is being probed by both ED and CBI and the case is a part of the overall probe in the 2G scam case.