Even as son Karti Chidambaram faces the heat after allegations of corruption and money laundering in the Rajasthan Ambulance scam, trouble has come knocking on the doors of his father, the former Union Minister P Chidambaram. In an ‘expose’ by RSS ideologues and chartered accountant S Gurumurthy in The New Indian Express, it was alleged that Chidambaram received black money via healthcare chain Vasan Eye Care, which he and his son owned through benami companies.
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The entire 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. The story also presents some circumstantial ‘evidence’ for possible links of Karti Chidambaram-owned companies to Vasan Eye Care.
The charges are to do with a company called JD Group, popular eye-hospital chain Vasan Eye Care and one Dr AM Arun.
The Benami Transactions
According to Gurumurthy, in his petition, Rao says that the JD Group made black money payments of up to Rs 100 crore to Vasan Group. 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 crore. The proof papers of these transactions are said to be lying with the Income Tax department.
Further, Gurumurthy says that Rao has alleged in his petition to CAT that it was P Chidambaram who received all the ‘black money’ from Vasan Eye Care from Dr AM Arun.
PC and his son Karti Chidambaram (KC) are crucial players behind Vasan with benami and dummy companies – the usual actors in corrupt structures – fronting for both.
—Gurumurthy
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 crores worth of investments coming in from Mauritius-based companies.
Gurumurthy claims that Chidambaram brandished the political clout of Vasan Eye Care when he got the then PM Manmohan Singh to open Vasan Eye Care’s 100th clinic in Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu. Gurumurthy is now demanding a full scale government inquiry.
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