Chennai: Karti Chidambaram, former Union Minister P Chidambaram's son, has left for the UK barely two days after his home was raided by the CBI sleuths. However, he maintains that the visit had already been planned earlier. As per the Chidambaram family, there is nothing to be alarmed since the trip is part of his work schedule -- Karti, who is a Congress member, is also a businessman.

The tickets for the trip had been booked well in advance. "I will be back soon," he said, while his father added, "There is no ban on his travel. It's a scheduled trip."

The properties of the Chdambarams were raided by the CBI on Monday. Although a chunk of the raids were conducted in Chennai, Delhi and Gurgaon, the agency is hot on the trail of the city's shell companies due to Karti's alleged involvement in routing crores of rupees through them.

According to a CBI official, "We have information that Karti has a number of such shell companies operating out of Kolkata."