NEW DELHI, May 16 - Law enforcement agencies today raided the residences and properties of two top opposition leaders P Chidambaram of the Congress and Lalu Prasad of the RJD as well as businessmen in a multi-city crackdown on alleged corruption and benami properties.
The searches by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Income Tax (IT) department were condemned by the opposition as �political vendetta� by the Centre with the Congress saying it will not be cowed down by the politics of �revenge� which was the �DNA of the government.�
But the NDA government hit back, saying today was the day of accountability for the �corrupt.� Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stoutly defended the searches, asserting that the �day of reckoning� has come for many and they will be held accountable for their misdeeds.
The CBI searched the homes and offices of Karti Chidambaram, son of P Chidambaram, a former finance minister, across four cities including Chennai for allegedly receiving money from a media firm INX owned by Indrani and Peter Mukerjea to allegedly manipulate a tax probe.
Separately, the Income Tax department conducted raids and surveys on at least 22 locations in Delhi and adjoining areas in connection with alleged benami deals stated to be worth Rs 1,000 crore linked to Lalu Prasad, who is the chief of Rashtriya Janata Dal, and some of his family members. RJD is a partner of the ruling alliance in Bihar that also comprised the JD(U) and the Congress.
CBI sleuths fanned out across the Chidambarams� properties in Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Gurugram early in the morning, a day after the agency filed an FIR against Karti, his company Chess Management Services, the Mukerjeas (currently in jail on charges of murdering their daughter Sheena Bora), INX Media, Advantage Strategic Consulting Services and its Director Padma Vishwanathan.
The FIR related to charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, receiving illegal gratification, influencing public servants and criminal misconduct. The CBI, which searched Chidambaram�s home in Nugambakkam in Chennai, also carried out searches at the house of Peter Mukerjea, a former media baron, in Mumbai, sources said.
It is alleged that Karti received money from INX Media, which was promoted by the Mukherjeas, for using his influence to manipulate a tax probe against it in a case of violation of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) conditions to receive investment from Mauritius.
P Chidambaram came out with a strong statement in response to the searches, saying the government was using the CBI and other agencies to target his son to silence his voice.
The FIPB approval was granted in �hundreds of cases�, the senior Congress leader said.
�The government, using the CBI and other agencies, is targeting my son and his friends... The government�s aim is to silence my voice and stop me from writing, as it has tried to do in the cases of leaders of opposition parties, journalists, columnists, NGOs and civil society organisations,� he said.
But he would continue to speak and write, he declared. � PTI
