Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union minister P Chidambaram, on Monday told the Supreme Court he wished to visit the United Kingdom to admitted his daughter at Cambridge University and was willing to undertake that he would not visit any bank there.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said it would hear the plea on Tuesday as Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who represents the CBI, was unavailable.
Senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, appearing for Karti, put forth the appeal to the bench that also comprised justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud.
The apex court has stayed the Madras high court order, which had stayed the operation of the look out circulars (LOCs) issued against Karti and others in the case.
The CBI lodged an FIR on May 15 alleging irregularities in Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when Karti’s father was the finance minister. The very next day, the investigative agency carried our searches at the residences and offices of Karti and his friends.
In response to CBI’s allegation that Karti had multiple bank accounts abroad, Sibal said Karti has one bank account in the UK.
On October 4, the CBI alleged in the apex court that Karti had “tampered” with evidence relating to an alleged graft case against him during his visits abroad in the months of May, June and July this year.
The agency had said that there was a need to issue a LoC against Karti as he had the “potential” to tamper with the evidence and he had done this during his visits abroad.
CBI had last month told the apex court that Karti was prevented from travelling abroad as he was allegedly closing several of his foreign bank accounts. The CBI’s contention was strongly refuted by Karti’s counsel.
The top court is hearing CBI’s appeal challenging Madras high court order staying the government’s look out circular (LOC) against Karti in the alleged graft case.
On September 1, the CBI had told the top court that there were “good, cogent” reasons for issuing the LOC against Karti.
On August 18, the court had asked Karti to appear before the investigating officer at the CBI headquarters here for questioning in the case.
Before this, the apex court had said that Karti would not be allowed to leave India without subjecting himself to investigation in the case. The court had then stayed the high court order putting on hold the LOC against Karti.
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