CBI claims new evidence against Karti

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was allowed by judge Sunil Rana to keep Karti Chidambaram, son of the former Union finance minister, in its custody for three more days. The agency said they needed to confront him with his chartered accountant, Bhaskar Raman, in the INX Media case. Karti is facing allegations that he helped the latter company’s promoters, Indrani and Peter Mukerjea (in custody for something else) in getting excess foreign investment during his father, P Chidambaram’s tenure as finance minister during the Manmohan SIngh government.

Karti, arrested on February 28, is also alleged to have influenced officers of the then Foreign Direct Investment Board ( FIPB) under his father’s ministry to scuttle a probe against INX Media for having got excess funds in violation of law. Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the CBI got “clinching evidence” of this during the raids on the office of Advantage Strategic Pvt Ltd in Chennai this week.

Mehta told the court the probe agency “now” had evidence of Karti’s links with Advantage Strategic, which was allegedly paid ~1 million by INX Media as consultation fee. “In spite of the material gathered, showing a direct nexus between Karti and Advantage Strategic, no details were revealed by the accused. The investigating agency now wishes to confront the accused with the material recovered, which is so unimpeachable that the accused may not be in a position to deny.”