Karti arrested, cries vendetta

The CBI on Wednesday arrested senior Congress leader P Chidambaram's businessman son Karti (46) at Chennai airport as soon as his flight arrived from London. He was immediately flown to Delhi for interrogation in a case of alleged kickbacks. The specific charge is that he was instrumental in getting foreign exchange clearance for Mumbai-based TV firm INX Media in 2007 when his father was the finance minister.

Karti had secured permission from the Supreme Court to go to London to get his daughter admitted in the Cambridge University. His apprehension in the court that he may be arrested on his return from London has proved true. Only last week, his father P Chidambaram had moved the Apex Court seeking to protect his fundamental rights, as he was the "real target of the Modi government for which his family was being harassed.’’

Seeking Karti's 15-day custody for interrogation, the agency told the CBI court that he was arrested for not cooperating in the investigations and giving evasive and incorrect replies to delay the probe. The agency declined to disclose details of the investigation in the open court.

Though in the initial FIR filed against him in May 2017, Karti has been accused of getting Rs 10 lakh in kickbacks for securing foreign exchange clearance of Rs 305 crore for INX Media, the CBI sources claim that fresh evidence shows he had received Rs 3.5 crore. A fresh case will be filed after the interrogation.

They said Karti had also helped the firm to scuttle a tax probe. The firm belonged to media magnate Indrani Mukerjee and her husband Peter, both of whom are in jail in Mumbai on the charge of murdering his daughter Sheena Bora from another marriage. It is understood that Indrani has deposed against Karti.

"I am not a fugitive. I went abroad every time under a court order and then came back. Miserable distortion to say that I am not cooperating in the investigation.’’ "I should have been a Hindustan Lever and fled instead of coming back to the country"

Brought to the Patiala House Courts in the evening, Karti told reporters that "this is vendetta, I will be vindicated." Congress chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala also said his arrest was a "vendetta" and a "diversionary tactic" to hide the Modi government's corruption and the bank scams of 'Chhota Modi' (Nirav Modi) and Mehul Choksi.