Supreme Court allows Karti Chidambaram to travel abroad, tells him to deposit Rs2 crore security

The top court said the amount be deposited in a nationalised bank and allowed Chidambaram to travel for six months.

The Supreme Court on Monday allowed Congress lawmaker Karti Chidambaram, who is being investigated in connection with the INX Media case, to travel abroad on the condition that he deposits ₹2 crore as security with the court in an interest-bearing account. 

Chidambaram is facing several criminal cases related to the Aircel-Maxis deal. (PTI File Photo )

The top court said the amount be deposited in a nationalised bank and allowed Chidambaram to travel for six months. Earlier, it had allowed him to travel to the UK, the US, France, Germany and Spain.

The bench of justice Ashok Bhushan and justice RS Reddy also asked Chidambaram's lawyer Kapil Sibal to submit details of the former’s itinerary and place of stay in the foreign countries that he will visit. The details need to be given to the court before Chidambaram leaves for the visit, the top court stated. 

Sibal, who is also a senior Congress leader, requested the bench to allow Chidambaram to approach the trial court for seeking further permission as the trial in the INX Media case against Chidambaram is pending there. 

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta objected to it, saying the top court alone should hear these petitions as in the past too permission was granted in this regard by the Supreme Court. 

Following Mehta’s argument, Sibal remarked, "Will a member of Parliament run away?". To this the solicitor general replied saying, "In the past, there has been an instance of an MP running away." Mehta’s comment was an apparent reference to liquor baron Vijay Mallya who escaped the country while he was a member of Parliament.

Chidambaram is facing several criminal cases related to the Aircel-Maxis deal and the Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance to INX Media for receiving foreign funds of ₹305 crore when his father, P Chidambaram, was the Union finance minister. The cases are being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The ED had earlier claimed that Karti Chidambaram had been trying to protract the investigation by "blatantly misusing" the liberty granted by the court in allowing him to travel abroad.

Earlier this month, a Delhi court had permitted the CBI to investigate documents it has recently received from Swiss authorities in the INX Media case involving former finance minister P Chidambaram and others, according to news agency ANI.

(With agency inputs)