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INX Media bribery case: Delhi HC reserves order on Karti’s bail plea

The Delhi High Court on Friday reserved its order on the bail plea of Karti Chidambaram, son of senior Congress…

INX Media bribery case: Delhi HC reserves order on Karti’s bail plea

Delhi High Court (Photo: Twitter)

The Delhi High Court on Friday reserved its order on the bail plea of Karti Chidambaram, son of senior Congress leader P Chidamabaram, in the INX Media corruption case lodged by the CBI.

Justice S P Garg heard the CBI and Karti’s lawyer and reserved his decision.

The CBI opposed the bail plea saying that tampering of evidence and influencing witnesses in the case was a possibility.

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The agency also alleged that Karti has tampered with certain evidence.

Karti has challenged the special trial judge order refusing to grant him bail.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court had extended, till March 26,  the interim protection from ED arrest granted to Karti Chidambaram by the Delhi High Court in the INX Media money laundering case.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud had also transferred to itself the cases pending before the Delhi High Court relating to adjudication of Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) power to arrest an accused under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The bench’s order came after taking into note that several high courts in the country have given conflicting views on interpretation of section 19 of the PMLA and that it would deal with the issue of interpretation of the section.

Karti’s interim protection from being arrested by the Enforcement Directorate was extended by the Delhi High Court from 20 March to 22.

A bench of justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta changed the date of hearing from March 20 to 22 after Karti’s counsel said that senior advocate Kapil Sibal will not be available on March 20.

Also read | INX Media case: Delhi court grants bail to Karti’s CA

Sibal is representing Karti in the matter.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) counsel Vinod Diwakar said he has instructions from Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta that the ASG has no objection if the date of hearing is changed to March 22.

To this the bench said, “Since no objection has been expressed by the ED for changing the dates, the petition is fixed for hearing on March 22.”

On 9 March, the Delhi High Court gave Congress leader P Chidambaram’s son Karti Chidambaram interim protection from being arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the INX Media money laundering case.

The interim relief to Karti Chidambaram from “any coercive action taken against him” by the ED till 20 March had came a day after the Supreme Court transferred to the Delhi High Court his plea seeking quashing of summons issued by probe agency.

(With agency inputs)

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