The Supreme Court on Friday refused to return 10 crore rupees deposited by Karti Chidambaram in the court registry for foreign travel for a further 3 months. A bench headed by Justice Deepak Gupta said that this amount will remain in the fixed account for another three months.Proceedings are being pursued against Karti in the Aircel-Maxis case and money laundering and he deposited this amount as per the condition imposed by the apex court while allowing him to travel abroad. The apex court had also refused to return the amount of Rs 10 crore in the month of May.
Karti, son of former finance minister P Chidambamaram, had earlier claimed in the court that he had taken the money on loan and was paying interest on it. On May 7, a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi allowed Karti to travel to Britain, America, France, Germany and Spain in the months of May and June.
Earlier, the court in January, while permitting Karti to travel abroad, directed that he should deposit 10 crore rupees with the Secretary General of the apex court. The court, at the request of the Enforcement Directorate, directed Karti to give a written assurance that he would cooperate with the investigation after returning from abroad. At the same time, the court warned them that if they did not do so, they would be strict with them.
The investigating agency had also told the court that Karti had been abroad for 51 days in the last six months. The Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation are investigating several criminal cases against Karti. One of these cases is related to allowing foreign investment of INR 305 crores to INX Media Group. The Foreign Investment Promotion Board gave this approval in 2007 and Karti’s father P Chidambaram was then Finance Minister.
