Supreme Court: The 3-judge bench of Dipak Misra, CJ and AM Khanwilkar and Dr. DY Chandrachud, JJ refused to grant Karti Chidambaram, the son of former Union minister P Chidambaram, interim protection from arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged money laundering case related to INX Media and sought a response from ED.
The Court had, on February 23, refused to stay the summons issued by the ED against Karti Chidambaram — who is presently in CBI custody in the INX Media money laundering case after the CBI said he was “not a common criminal” and his plea for quashing the notice was “a guise for an anticipatory bail plea”. In his fresh writ petition, Karti Chidambaram has challenged the summons on the ground that the ED has no jurisdiction to issue such notices based on the FIR lodged by the CBI.
The ED had registered a case against him and others in May last year. It registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), the ED’s equivalent of a police FIR, against the accused named in a CBI complaint. These included Karti Chidambaram, INX Media and its directors, Peter and Indrani Mukerjea. An FIR, filed on May 15 last year, had alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving Rs 305 crore in overseas funds in 2007 when P Chidambaram was Union finance minister.
The Court will now hear the matter on 08.03.2018.
Source: PTI
