Karti Chidambaram recently sought bail from a Delhi court after alleging that the CBI was acting at the behest of the Centre to malign the reputation of his father ex-Union finance minister P Chidambaram during whose tenure FIPB clearance was granted to the INX Media group.
The bail application stated, “It is submitted that the instant criminal proceeding is mala fide and borne out of political vendetta and the investigating agency was acting at the behest of the central government, which wants to malign the untainted and unimpeachable reputation of the applicant's father P Chidambaram who is a senior leader of the Indian National Congress and is also the ex-Union finance minister.”
The bail application was filed by senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who was appearing for Karti and said that the evidence in the case was in the form of files and in possession of the Finance Ministry so there was no question of tampering by him as it was said, “It is further submitted that the evidence in the case is documentary in nature and is largely in the nature of files in the Ministry of Finance which are currently in the safe and secure possession of the incumbent government. As such there arises no question of the applicant being able to tamper with the said documentary evidence.”
The court will hear arguments on the bail application on March 9 during which Karti will be produced from custody as well.
In his plea, Karti also contended that during investigation in the matter he fully cooperated and complied with all the directions of the IO.
He said in the bail plea, “It is pertinent to point out that despite non-issuance of any summons by the agency after August 28, 2017, the CBI, in a wholly illegal and arbitrary manner arrested him on February 28 from the Chennai Airport upon his return from the United Kingdom.”
It added, “The CBI, in flagrant violation of law, arrested the applicant without any just cause and without furnishing to him the grounds of arrest.”
