ED conducts raids at six places in Aircel-Maxis case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted raids at six places in Chennai and Kolkata in connection with its money laundering investigation into the Aircel-Maxis case.

Two out of the four places raided in the city belongs to Dr Sadayavel Kailasam, brother of former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram's wife Nalini, the sources said, adding others being searched in the city were identified as S Sambamoorthy and Ramji Natarajan. The ED officials also searching two places in Kolkata connected to Manoj Mohanka.

The ED sources said that the raid was connected to the case pertaining to the FIPB approval granted in 2006 by Chidambaram during his tenure as Finance Minister in the Congress led UPA government.

It had alleged that FIPB approval in the Aircel-Maxis FDI case was granted in March 2006 by then Finance Minister even though he was competent to grant approval for the project up to Rs 600 crore and beyond it should be granted by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. However, in the case of the approval for the $800 million (over RS 3,500 crore) Aircel-Maxis FDI, it was not obtained from the CCEA, it alleged.

Chidambaram has on several occasions maintained that his approval was in normal course.