INX Media case: ED moves Supreme Court against Delhi HC order granting interim protection to Karti Chidambaram

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday moved the Surpreme Court against the Delhi High Court order which had granted interim protection from arrest by ED to Karti Chidambaram. Karti, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, was granted protection from arrest till 20 March in the INX Media money laundering case. [caption id=“attachment_4372345” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Karti Chidambaram. PTI[/caption] CNN-News18 further reported that the apex court agreed to hear ED’s plea on Thursday. The Delhi High Court in its order had also made it clear that in case the special court grants Karti bail in the CBI case which has registered a corruption case against him, the ED will not arrest him till the next hearing before it. The court had also issued a notice and sought a response of the Centre and the ED on Karti’s plea challenging the issuance of summons and proceedings initiated against him in the money laundering case. Karti, on last Thursday, had moved the high court after the Supreme Court had allowed him to withdraw his writ petition against the ED summons with a liberty to take urgent redressal before the high court. Karti was arrested from the Chennai Airport on 28 February upon his return from the United Kingdom, in connection with an FIR that was registered on 15 May last year. Since his arrest, the businessman has been in CBI custody for questioning. The FIR 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 his father was the Union finance minister. Initially, the CBI had alleged that Karti Chidambaram received a bribe of Rs 10 lakh in order to facilitate the FIPB clearance to INX Media. The agency, however, later revised the figure to USD 1 million (about Rs 6.50 crore at the current exchange rate and Rs 4.50 crore in 2007). The fresh evidence in the case, which triggered Karti’s arrest, was based on a statement by Indrani Mukerjea, former director of INX Media (P) Ltd, who recorded her statement under Section 164 of the CrPC before a magistrate on 17 February. With inputs from PTI