New Delhi:

The CBI has registered a fresh case of corruption against former finance minister P Chidambaram’s son and Congress MP, Karti Chidambaram, for allegedly giving relief to alcoholic beverage company Diageo Scotland over a ban on the duty-free sale of its whisky, officials said Thursday.

The case pertains to an alleged suspicious payment made to Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt. Ltd, “an entity controlled” by Karti P Chidambaram and his close aide S Bhaskararaman by Diageo Scotland and Sequoia Capitals, the CBI FIR said.

“Enquiry revealed that out of various proposals of FIPB enquired into, it was found that Diageo Scotland and Sequoia Capitals have suspiciously transferred funds to Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt. Ltd., an entity controlled by Sh. Karti P Chidambaram and his close aide S Bhaskararaman,” it said.

The agency alleged that its enquiry has found that Diageo Scotland, UK used to import duty-free Johnnie Walker whisky.

No immediate reaction was available from the suspects named in the FIR.

In April 2005, the India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC), which had a monopoly over the sale of imported duty-free liquor in India, put an embargo on the sale of the Diageo Group’s duty-free products in India, which resulted in a huge loss to Diageo Scotland as 70 per cent of its business in India pertained to the sale of Johnnie Walker whisky, the agency alleged.

The CBI FIR alleged that Diageo Scotland approached Karti Chidambaram, seeking help in lifting the ban and made payments of USD 15,000 to Advantage Strategic Consulting, which took it in the guise of “consultancy fee”.

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Congress leader Karti Chidambaram will once again contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from his family’s stronghold of Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu. His father, former finance minister P Chidambaram, represented the constituency seven times.  

Here are 5 points on Karti Chidambaram: 

1. Born on November 16, 1977, to P Chidambaram and Nalini Chidambaram, Karti Chidambaram did his schooling from Don Bosco, Chennai. He has a Bachelor in Business Administration from the University of Texas in the US. He completed his Bachelors in Law from Cambridge University.
2. His first real brush with politics came when he worked as a campaign manager with his father in the Congress Jananayaka Peravai, a party formed in 2001 after P Chidambaram broke away from the Tamil Maanila Congress.
3. In 2019, P Chidambaram and his son Karti were accused by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of causing losses to the government. The chargesheet alleged the Chidambarams received Rs 9.96 lakh as bribes in 2008 to facilitate illegal foreign investment in INX Media a company founded by Peter and Indrani Mukherjea. P Chidambaram was arrested by the CBI and then by the Enforcement Directorate. He has got bail in both cases.
4. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Karti Chidambaram was picked as the Congress candidate from Sivaganga. He came a distant fourth with a gap of 3.7 lakh votes from the eventual winner, AIADMK’s PR Senthilnathan. He made a strong comeback in the 2019 elections to defeat the BJP’s H Raja by a margin of over 3.3 lakh votes.
5. He is married to Srinidhi Chidambaram, a doctor and the Vice President at Apollo Hospitals. She is also a well-known Bharatanatyam artiste. The couple has a daughter together.