Even as son Karti Chidambaram faces the heat on allegations of a corruption and money laundering in the Rajasthan Ambulance scam, trouble has come knocking on the doors of his father and former Union Minister P Chidambaram. In an expose by RSS ideologues and chartered accountant S Gurumurthy in The New Indian Express, it is alleged that Chidambaram received black money via healthcare-chain Vasan Eye Care, which he and his son owned through benami companies.
You can read the entire article here. Here we simplify it for you.
The story is based on one document, a sworn statement by one M Srinivasa Rao, Commissioner of Income Tax (Central), who was earlier in Chennai. His complaint was given to the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), stating that he was transferred as punishment for not obeying ‘unlawful’ orders. Gurumurthy also says there is some circumstantial evidence in possible links of Karti Chidambaram-owned companies to Vasan Eye Care.
The accusations are to do with a company called JD Group, popular eye-hospital chain Vasan Eye Care and one Dr AM Arun.
According to Gurumurthy, in his petition, Rao says, JD Group made black money payments of up to Rs. 100 crore to Vasan Group, but Gurumurthy adds that ‘investigations beyond Rao’s petition to CAT now shows that the amount paid by JD Group in cash to Vasan Group’ was Rs. 223 cr. The proof papers of this are said to be lying with the Income Tax department.
Further, Gurumurthy says that Rao has said in his petition to CAT that it was P Chidambaram who received all the ‘black money’ from Vasan Eye Care from Dr AM Arun. Gurumurthy adds, “PC and his son Karti Chidambaram (KC) are crucial players from behind Vasan with benamis and dummy companies, the usual actors in corrupt structures, fronting for both.”
Gurumurthy says that Rao alleges that P Chidambaram owns Vasan Eye Care through companies in Mauritius and Singapore. To substantiate this, Gurumurthy explains the growth of the company, pointing out that it was only after ‘KC’ (Karti Chidambaram) invested in the company through a shell that Vasan grew substantially, with hundreds of crore rupees worth of investments coming in from Mauritius based companies. He also explains how the money was allegedly taken out.
Gurumurthy says that Chidambaram brandished the political clout of Vasan Eye Care when he got then PM Manmohan Singh to open Vasan Eye Care’s 100th clinic in Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu.
Based on this, Gurumurthy says that a full scale government enquiry must be launched into this.