The question of whether home minister P Chidambaram's son, Karti Chidambaram, is linked with the controversial sale of telecom firm Aircel to Malaysia's Maxis Communications has rocked Parliament twice this week.The allegation was first raised by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, who accused P Chidambaram, then finance minister, of delaying clearance to the Aircel-Maxis deal in 2006, to benefit his son. Swamy contends that Karti received a 5% stake in Aircel, a charge the latter denies.As a flurry of allegations and counter allegations are being hurled across the political divide - as opposition parties demanded Chidambaram's resignation - ET took an independent look at the various business interests of Karti, a politician-cum-sports administrator- cum-trained lawyer-cum-businessman.Gleaned from filings with the Registrar of Companies, the research reveals his links with araft of companies engaged in businesses spanning legal consultancy, healthcare and marketing, and a plethora of mostly small-ticket transactions. Read on...Companies owned by Karti or his known associates (this includes companies that are or were at some point owned by Karti or family members):Ausbridge Holdings and Investments Pvt LtdAdvantage Strategic Consulting Pvt LtdChess Management Services Pvt LtdChess Health Care Pvt LtdHalidon Marketing Pvt LtdKriya FMCG Distributors Pvt LtdKaiser Luxury Hotels Pvt LtdKaiser Surya Samudra Resorts Pvt LtdKnown associates and directors of companies owned by Karti: CBN Reddy, S Sundar, Mohanan Rajesh.Advantage Strategic Consulting (ASC), a company owned by Karti, paid Rs 26 lakh to Aircel Televentures. He received a 5% stake in return.While we have not been able to find this precise link, we found that ASC's 2006-07 balancesheet, under the head 'loans and advances', a payment of Rs 26 lakh is shown as having been made to Aircel Televenture Ltd. At this point, however, Karti had no equity stake in Advantage Strategic.It was solely owned by Ravi Viswanathan and Padma Viswanathan. The company had business relations with other companies owned by Karti.Alongside the payment to Aircel Televentures, payments made to Karti-owned companies such as Chess Management Services, Chess Health Care Solutions and Halidon Marketing Pvt Ltd have also been listed under the same head.There is no entry to show that ASC held any stake in Aircel Televentures (the company later became Siva Ventures, named after billionaire owner C Sivasankaran) in either company's balance sheet.Siva Ventures, being a large company, does not list individual transactions on its balance-sheet schedules. Records of Siva Ventures prior to 2006 are unavailable.In a legal notice served to Subramanian Swamy, lawyers for Advantage Strategic have said that the Rs 26 lakh payment was from Aircel for consultancy services rendered by Advantage. It is unclear whether entries against Chess Management and Halidon are also similarly amounts paid by them to Advantage for consultancy services.Responding to a query by ET, an ASC spokesperson said the company has never held any shares in Aircel Televentures or any of its group companies.Indirectly, yes. On 25 March 2011, Ausbridge Holdings bought 200,000 shares (amounting to a 66% equity stake) in Advantage Strategic. Ausbridge Holdings was 95% owned by Karti. An ASC spokesperson said he does not own any equity in Ausbridge now, although it is not known when Karti divested his stake.The company's 2011 annual return shows that Karti owned 18,000 of the total 19,000 outstanding shares in the company as on 21 September 2011. In March this year, Karti quit the directorship of Ausbridge.On 15 September 2008, CBN Reddy and Kriya FMCG Distributors acquired a 50% stake in Advantage Strategic. Kriya FMCG was founded with Karti's wife Srinidhi Chidambaram as one of the two first directors.On 1 September 2008, Srinidhi Chidambaram and her daughter transferred their majority shares in the company to Reddy. An honourary secretary of Tamil Nadu Tennis Association, Reddy is a director in Kriya FMCG, Advantage Strategic and Kaiser Surya Samudra.(There are multiple entries for the transfer of shares from Karti's family members to CBN Reddy. The 2006 annual return for Kriya FMCG shows that Srinidhi Chidambaram and her daughter transferred 22,500 shares (out of a total of 25,000) to Reddy.However, the annual return for 2007 shows Srinidhi and her daughter as the owners of those shares and the 2008 return shows that the same number of shares were again transferred on 1 September 2008.)Yes. Kriya FMCG had a few, small business transactions with Sindya Aqua Minerale Pvt Ltd. This company is owned by Apollo Hospitals chairman Pratap Reddy's daughter Suneeta Reddy and her husband Dwarakanath Reddy. The same promoters own a 26% stake in Aircel through Sindya Securities and Investments Pvt Ltd and Deccan Digital Networks.Kriya FMCG's books between 2006 and 2011 show that the company maintained a deposit with Sindya Aqua Minerale. That company was among the few companies Kriya did routine business with. Sindya is shown as a creditor (Rs 2.5 lakh) in 2007 and as a debtor in 2008 (Rs 2.17 lakh), 2009 (Rs 8.22 lakh) and 2010 (Rs 2.4 lakh).The entries are recorded on Kriya FMCG's balance sheet as Sindhya Aqua Minerals, presumably a typographic error as there is no company by that name.Karti's companies mostly appear to be involved in providing consultancy services. Kaiser Luxury Hotels Pvt Ltd and Kaiser Surya Samudra Resorts Pvt Ltd appear to be involved in resorts and hospitality business.Ausbridge, which was started and until recently owned by Karti, holds a significant stake in leading eye-care chain Vasan Health Care Pvt Ltd through its ownership in Advantage Strategic. On 30 October 2008, Vasan Health Care issued 150,000 shares, amounting to a 5% equity stake in the company, to Advantage Strategic Consulting, which paid Rs 1.5 crore, or Rs 100 per share. (When Vasan issued shares to its own promoters, they paid a Rs 100 premium over and above the Rs 100 share price.)Vasan Health Care subsequently received private equity funding from Sequoia, Westbridge Capital and Singapore government's investment fund GIC. These companies have together invested $150 million at an undisclosed valuation. PE industry sources told ET that the deals valued Vasan at $1 billion (about Rs 5,300 crore today). Vasan Health Care did not respond to a request for comment.The 5% equity Advantage bought in Vasan Health Care for Rs 1.5 crore in 2008 is worth several times that now. When the warrants held by the private equity players are converted to equity, the company's stake may get diluted down depending on the terms of the deal.A representative for Advantage Strategic said the promoters of Vasan Health Care invited the company to buy a stake in 2008 as they acted as consultants to the promoter group from the beginning.When Karti-owned Ausbridge bought 200,000 shares (amounting to a 66% equity stake) in Advantage, it agreed to pay Rs 15 per share (Rs 10 face value plus a premium on Rs 5). But the company only paid Rs 2.5 per share, and was allowed to pay the remaining in calls. Previous allottees paid a premium of Rs 77 per share, over and above the Rs 10 share price.An ASC spokesperson said the money for Ausbridge's purchase of shares in Advantage Strategic was brought in solely by Karti's partner Mohanan Rajesh. Karti Chidambaram declined comment for this story.