Supreme Court restores lookout notice, asks Karti to approach CBI for quizzing

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday restored a CBI lookout circular against Karti Chidambaram, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, to prevent him from going abroad and asked him to approach the central probe agency.

The apex court, in the process, put on hold Madras High Court’s August 10 stay on the lookout circular issued against Karti Chidambaram, who is facing a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in Foreign Investment Promotion Board approvals.

The top court made it clear that Karti Chidambaram would not leave the country till he cooperated in investigation to the satisfaction of the investigating agency.

“You appear (before the investigating agency), and satisfy them,” Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar told senior counsel Gopal Subramanium, asking him to give a date when his client would like to be questioned.

“Give a date. If he is in Delhi, he will be questioned in Delhi. If he is in Chennai, he will be questioned in Chennai,” the Chief Justice said.

The apex court order came on a petition by the Central Bureau of Investigation, which contended that the High Court had no territorial jurisdiction to entertain the plea and stay the lookout notice as the matter is before the Special CBI court in Delhi.

Staying the August 10 order, a bench of Chief Justice Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud directed for further hearing on August 18.

“We will say nothing but stay the High Court order,” the bench told Subramanium as he sought to assure the bench that Karti Chidambaram would not be running away from investigation.

“You can take it from me that there will be no running away, I say it voluntarily,” Subramanium said.

Not accepting the plea for continuation of stay on the lookout circular, the Chief Justice Khehar told the senior counsel: “We had a very bad experience when we allowed a person to go abroad and he never came back.”

“First, you show your bona fides by going to the Investigating Officer”, the Chief Justice said.

“The question is he is required to participate in the investigation and all that lookout notice says is don’t travel abroad.”

The agency had told the court that the lookout notice was only to prevent the son of former finance minister P Chidambaram from leaving the country.