NEW DELHI: Officials from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax on Monday conducted searches at premises in Tamil Nadu said to be linked to former Finance Minister P Chidambaram 's son Karti, drawing a sharp retort from the UPA-era cabinet heavyweight who accused the government of launching a "malicious onslaught" on his family.The raids, purportedly in connection with the agencies' investigations into the Aircel-Maxis deal that is part of of their overall probe into the 2G scam case, were conducted at premises in Chennai and Tiruchirappalli. The income tax department said these were based on "credible information of tax evasion and large scale financial irregularities". A ED spokesperson also confirmed the raids. Both agencies did not officially identify the people or the companies raided.The Economic Times had on August 31 this year flagged off the impending ED action in an article that said the directorate had written to the RBI and NSDL on foreign exchange transactions by firms said to be linked to Karti Chidambaram Reacting to the raids, Chidambaram accused the government of harassing friends of his son."If the government wishes to target me, they should do so directly, not harass friends of my son who carry on their own businesses and have nothing to do with politics," he said in a statement.The former finance minister also accused the government of firing from the shoulders of a senior official in the ED, who he said was known to be inimical to him. While his statement did not name the official, the former finance minister is known in Delhi's political and bureaucratic circles to be at daggers drawn against a senior ED official in Delhi. However, Monday's raids were conducted by the Chennai offices of the ED and the Income Tax department.Chidambaram's statement said when he was finance minister the officer had asked him to intervene in a dispute with the revenue department, but he had declined to do so."The change of government has given him an opportunity to misuse his powers to harass my son and his friends," he said, adding that he and his family were prepared to face the "malicious onslaught launched by the government".The Congress party also came to his defence and accused the NDA regime of trying to “persecute” the former finance minister “on account of political vendetta” and that it was the latest in a series of deliberate targeting of many senior Congress leaders in order “to settle political scores”.The government sought to reject the charge that the actions of its agencies were politically motivated. In an unusual statement, the Income Department said the searches and surveys were in accordance with the the provisions of the Income-tax Act and were consequential to ongoing investigations. "There is no collateral purpose behind such actions and no political person or his family member are today shareholders or directors of the companies searched or surveyed by the Income Tax Department."ED officials said that they were probing Karti’s role on the directions of the court. The agency is probing whether firms linked to the former finance minister's son were also illegal beneficiaries of a controversial deal involving the sale of mobile firm Aircel by Chennai-based entrepreneur to Malaysian group Maxis in 2006.The CBI and ED have alleged that Sivasankaran was forced to sell because Dayanidhi Maran , the then telecom minister, held back clearance for spectrum. In return, Maxis, as per the theory of the agencies, bribed the Marans by investing in Sun DTH, part of the Sun Group. BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has often levelled allegations that Karti Chidambaram also benefited from the deal.Karti has denied all allegations.