Karti Chidambaram approaches Madras High Court to challenge CBI's summons

Chennai: Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union minister P. Chidambaram, has approached the Madras high court, challenging a notice issued by the CBI directing him to appear before it on July 21 in connection with a case relating to alleged misuse of his position as the son of the then finance minister and influenced the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to prevent any punitive action against the INX group for violating the FIPB norms. Justice P. Velmurugan before whom the petition filed by Karti Chidambaram came up for hearing on Friday, adjourned it to July 28.

According to Karti, after a roving and fishing enquiry, the Enforcement Directorate misusing the financial intelligence unit of the Ministry of Finance, apparently could only stumble upon a receipt of '10 lakh as a fee by the company M/s Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt. Ltd for consultation work done for M/s INX Media Pvt. Ltd in the year 2008. ED passed on this information to the CBI and asked them to file a case of corruption and cheating against him, he added.

Hence, in order to continue its harassment of him and his father, the central government wanted to manufacture an offence and used the CBI as a tool to achieve its nefarious objectives and ensure CBI filed an FIR for an alleged predicate offence.

Pursuant thereto, the CBI registered the FIR dated May 15, 2017, under various provisions of IPC and PCA before the Special Judge, CBI cases, Patiala House Courts, New Delhi. Based on this, the CBI has now issued the summons directing him to appear before it on July 21, he added.

When the petition came up for hearing, Senior counsel Gopal Subramaniam appearing for Karti submitted that it was settled principle of law that issuing summons to an accused and interrogating him would amount to violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 20 (3) of the Constitution, which stated that no person accused of an offence shall be compelled to be a witness against himself. Opposing Karti's plea, Additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta submitted that the summons has been issued well within the jurisdiction and investigative powers of the CBI.