India's ex-finance minister's son arrested on corruption charges

India's apex investigation agency on Wednesday arrested Karti Chidambaram, the son of former finance and home minister P. Chidambaram, in the southern city of Chennai, on charges of corruption.

He allegedly received money from INX Media for using his influence to manipulate a tax probe against the media company. The probe was in a case to do with the violation of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) conditions.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) claimed to have seized vouchers of one million Indian rupees (around 15,400 U.S. dollars) which were allegedly paid for the services.

Karti was arrested at the Chennai airport as soon as he arrived from London.

The Times of India daily quoted a CBI official as saying: "We have strong evidence to confirm his role in a cheating case." However, the official denied to divulge more information about the case.

Karti's father P. Chidambaram held the portfolios of home and finance ministries in the previous Congress-led alliance government headed by Manmohan Singh.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)