Can Karti Chidambaram be allowed to go abroad for a few days, asks Supreme Court
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday indicated that it will permit Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, to go abroad for four or five days pending investigation of the case registered against him. A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud, after perusing the confidential materials submitted by the CBI in a sealed cover on the investigation being conducted against Karti Chidambaram asked CBI to take instructions whether he could be allowed to go abroad for a few days. The Bench also wanted CBI to explore whether Karti could be examined again in the light of the new material evidence produced in the court. As the matter has now been posted for further hearing on November 16, Karti Chidambaram cannot travel abroad as per his application at least for the lecture from November 10 to 15. He sought permission to visit UK again between December 1 and 7.
On October 11, the court had expressed its inclination to examine the materials in the sealed cover produced by the CBI through the Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta. On Thursday, the Bench went through the materials and asked the ASG as to how long it would take for the CBI to complete the investigation. The ASG told the Bench that the materials are little disturbing. The last time when Karti visited abroad he had closed his bank accounts and the CBI’s apprehension is if he was allowed to go abroad again he might close the remaining bank accounts and he might not be available for interrogation. He said the vehemence with which Mr. Kapil Sibal and Gopal Subramanium urge that their client should go abroad for some lecture or to participate in some meeting did not inspire confidence.
Both the counsel took except to the ASG’s allegations and said “let the CBI produce any evidence or document to show that the petitioner had signed wither to open or close a bank account. The petitioner had only one account in UK, which he had closed, and he had also filed an affidavit as to how he purchased a propery in UK through the liberalised scheme. Justice Kanwilkar told the ASG “if you don’t want to call him for interrogation at this stage you must tell why you don’t want to examine him now.”
Mr. Sibal had argued that the materials forming part of the investigation which could not be supplied to the petitioner could not be relied upon for adjudicating legal validity of the Look out Circular, to prevent Karti Chidambaram from going abroad.
The CJI told Mr. Sibal “if necessary we may ask the CBI to produce the case diary.” To which the ASG said “the materials produced today are part of the case diary but we don’t want to disclose them at this stage. The CBI registered an FIR against Karti and others on May 15, 2017 for alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance granted to INX Media for receiving overseas funds in 2007. He challenged the LoC and got relief in the Madras High Court. The CBI filed the present appeal in the apex court. The Bench posted the matter for further hearing on November 16.
