Delhi,India. Like many developing countries, India has a terrible corruption, but unlike many nations such as Ukraine where nothing ever happens, here suspects get a real close encounter with the law, they won’t soon forget.
Former Indian government official Chidambaram, 71, served twice as finance minister in the Congress-led coalition that ran India for a decade – from 2004-08 and then from 2012 until the party’s election defeat in 2014.
The long arm of India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) searched the homes of former finance minister P. Chidambaram and his son, in a probe into suspected criminal misconduct related to approvals of investment deals.
The raids marked an escalation in pressure by Indian federal investigators against Chidambaram, a senior leader of the opposition Congress party who has been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India’s main federal crime-fighting agency, carried out searches at locations in the cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Gurugram and Chennai, including the residence of Chidambaram’s son Karti there.
The raids were “in connection with criminal misconduct” in granting approval for foreign investment deals, a CBI spokesman said without giving further details.P. Chidambaram denied wrongdoing. He said all investment approvals granted during his tenure were above board.
A recent Indian police report obtained by reporters that lays out the case named Karti Chidambaram as one of those accused of criminal conspiracy, cheating, seeking to influence a public servant and criminal misconduct. “The government, using the CBI and other agencies, is targeting my son and his friends,” he said in a statement.