17.9.2015: The New Indian Express breaks the story of Vasan Eye Care (Vasan) scam saying Karti-controlled Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited (Advantage) got 1.50 lakh Vasan shares in which Karti made huge gains
18.9.2015: Vasan faxes a meek denial
19.9.2915: Express slams Vasan denial as “shamelessly evasive”
19.9.2015: Karti tweets a poem, obviously got written by him, abusing the writer S Gurumurthy as an Aryan dog barking at the ‘Sun’; also tweets a letter from a vice president of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee smearing the writer as “Varnashrama RSS” man
21.9.2015: Senior Chidambaram himself comes out to deny any nexus between his family and Vasans or any corporate, terming the expose as ‘ridiculous’, ‘laughable’, ‘false’ and ‘malicious’ and threatens to sue the paper. Express stands by its report and challenges him to sue. Chidambaram remains silent
23.10.2015: Express brings out new evidence — the affidavit of Commissioner of Income Tax before Central Administrative Tribunal — which nails Chidambaram’s lies. Chidambaram is silent
1.12.2015: Income Tax Department and Enforcement Directorate jointly search Vasan and Karti Chidambaram
2.12.2015: Reacting to the raid, Chidambaram says, “We have made it clear, repeatedly, that no member of my family has any equity or economic interest in any of the firms that are being targeted.…I condemn the attempt to link them to my son and harass them on that ground. If the government wants to target me, it should do so directly. My family and I are quite prepared to face the ‘malicious onslaught’ launched by government.”
16.12.2015: ED seizes Karti’s laptop and files. Karti says, “Neither I nor any of my family members have any connections with the said firms.”
29.2.2016: The Pioneer newspaper reports Karti has built a huge empire for himself in real estate and is engaging in other business activities in all continents of the world and different tax havens
1.3.2016: Rajya Sabha adjourned after AIADMK demands action against Chidambaram
2.3.2016: Karti repeats that he is ‘not a shareholder or a director of Advantage, which is owned by his friends known very well to him’. Senior Chidambaram says, ‘he does not know about Sequoia Capital and can’t comment’.
19.4.2016: ED raided Sequoia Capital, which had invested in Vasan and acquired from Advantage 30,000 shares at Rs 8,500 per share, which Advantage had acquired at Rs 100 per share, and later another 30,000 shares at a price not known
26.4.2016: Express exposes the lies of the Chidambarams that they have nothing to do with Advantage and proves they own it through benamis