Karti Chidambaram sent to one day CBI remand

Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, was on Wednesday remanded to a day's CBI custody in the INX Media case in which he was arrested in Chennai this morning.

Metropolitan Magistrate Sumit Anand granted the police remand till 12.30 p.m on Thursday when the regular CBI judge would hear the agency which has sought 15 days' remand of Karti for a detailed probe.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) counsel told the duty magistrate that they needed custodial interrogation of Karti because he was not cooperating in the probe and was going abroad frequently.

Rejecting the CBI claim, senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi said both charges were false. He said Karti had appeared before the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for 30-40 hours in all and had cooperated in the probe.

Singhvi said after August 28 last year, the CBI had never issued summons and whenever he had gone abroad he had gone with court's permission. He also rejected the charge of possible tampering with the evidence by Karti, saying this was a 10-year-old case based on documents and there was no question of tampering.

Describing the arrest as malafide, he also jocularly remarked that Karti was not a "Hindustan Leaver but Hindustan Returner" for which he got the reward of arrest from the airport.

The counsel also said that Karti was ready for any conditions like surrendering passport and remaining within a city with daily attendence.

The CBI counsel said that Indrani Mukerjea, also an accused in the case, had told a magistrate that Karti had met her in a hotel in Delhi and asked for a bribe of USD one million for clearence in the INX Media case.

--IANS

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