RELIEF FROM ED, BUT NONE FROM CBI

NEW DELHI: With the Central Bureau of Investigation’s custody coming to an end on Friday, and the Delhi High Court giving him protection from being arrested in the same case, Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, may have fancied his chances of being released, but that wasn’t to be, as a special CBI court sent him to police custody for three more days on Friday.

Karti was arrested by CBI last week in connection with a bribery case involving broadcaster INX Media. Seeking an extension of Karti’s custody by six days — he has already been in custody for 10 days — CBI said it needed to confront him with his chartered account S Bhaskararaman ,who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on February 16 and sent to judicial custody till March 22. The agency also moved an application seeking another confrontation between Karti and former media baron Indrani Mukherjea and her husband Peter Mukherjea, co-founders of INX Media, who are in a Mumbai jail in connection with the murder of the former’s daughter Sheena Bora. CBI, represented by Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, claimed that in a recently conducted raid at the office of Advantage Strategic Private Limited (ASPL) in Chennai, agency sleuths recovered incriminating material that have been sent for examination. Karti has been accused by CBI of controlling ASPL. CBI said the material collected from the raids at previously a “unknown office” points to a nexus between ASPL and him. Earlier in the day, the Delhi HC granted Karti interim protection from being arrested by the ED in the same case.