Court remands Karti to one-day CBI custody
NEW DELHI: Karti Chidambaram, arrested in connection with the probe into the INX Media case, was on Wednesday remanded to one-day CBI custody by a Delhi Court.
Karti has been arrested based on the “confessional” statement recorded before a magistrate under 164 CRPC of INX Media directors Peter Mukerjea and wife Indrani.
In their statements, which is admissible as evidence in the court, the Mukerjeas had claimed to have paid close to $700,000 (Rs 3.10 crore) to Karti through subsidiaries abroad, for organizing clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to bring in foreign funds for their TV venture INX Media. The FIPB comes under the finance ministry, the charge of which was then with Karti’s father and senior Congress politician P Chidambaram.
46-year-old Karti, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Sumeet Anand and the CBI sought his custodial interrogation for 15 days claiming that he was not cooperating in the probe.
The duty magistrate remanded him to one-day CBI custody and asked the agency to produce Karti before the concerned judge on Thursday. When Karti was brought to the Patiala House district court premises and was taken to the courtroom, he told the waiting scribes, “It is absolutely a political vendetta. I will be vindicated”.
In its remand application filed in the court, the CBI claimed that sustained interrogation of Karti was needed to unearth the “total conspiracy” hatched in the case and also to find out the details of overseas payments allegedly received by him from INX Media as a “quid pro quo”.
At the outset, the court allowed the request of Karti’s lawyers to have an interaction with the accused inside the courtroom for 10 minutes, after which the proceedings resumed.
Earlier in the day, Karti was taken into custody by a team of CBI officials at the Chennai airport on his return from the United Kingdom.
NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram appeared to have a premonition of the arrest of his son Karti when he filed a petition recently in the Supreme Court apprehending "continued harassment" to him and his family members.
Karti was arrested by the CBI today on his arrival from London, even before Chidambaram's petition could be listed for hearing by the top court.
Chidambaram, who has been closely monitoring the case of his son in the Supreme Court which is argued by his party colleague and senior advocate Kapil Sibal, had sprung a surprise last week by filing a petition on his own accusing the CBI and the ED of carrying out a political vendetta against him and his family.
In his petition, Chidambaram has sought the apex court's direction prohibiting the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) from continuing their "illegal investigations" and from acting in any manner "causing repeated harassment" to him and his family members, including his son.
However, the CBI swung into action by arresting Karti today even before the petition was heard by the top court.
In his plea, Chidambaram, himself a senior advocate, has said that the position in the INX Media case was "worse" as, though the CBI had lodged an FIR in May 2017, the probe agencies have not filed any report "concluding that any criminal offence had been committed or that any proceeds of crime had arisen out of that criminal offence".
An FIR, filed by the CBI on May 15 last year, had alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when Chidambaram was the Union finance minister.
While the CBI has alleged that Karti had received funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in the case, the ED has also registered a money laundering case in the matter.
Chidambaram, in his petition before the apex court, has said that his fundamental rights were being violated due to "illegal" investigations being carried out by the CBI and the ED and the central government has been "misusing" its probe agencies.
He has said that being the Finance Minister then, he had granted FIPB approvals in the INX Media case and the Aircel-maxis case in the "normal course of official business". In discharge of his functions, he has "never allowed any member of his family, including his son, or any other person to interfere with or influence the conduct of official business".
Chidambaram has said that the CBI and ED cannot "harass" Karti and others, who were totally unconnected with the FIPB approval by issuing repeated summons to them.
"The petitioner (Chidambaram) feels sad that his son and his business friends are being targeted," the plea said, adding, "The entire investigation being conducted by the CBI and ED is a total farce and is being made only to malign the name of the petitioner and his son in the eyes of the public".