Delhi court extends protection from arrest to Chidambaram, Karti till May 6 in Aircel-Maxis case

A Delhi court on Friday extended till May 6 the interim protection from arrest granted to former Union minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti in the Aircel-Maxis case.

The ED meanwhile told the court that Karti was not cooperating in the case and evaded questions on certain emails retrieved from his computer hard disks.

Special Judge O P Saini extended the interim relief to Chidambarams and deferred the matter after Enforcement Directorate (ED) sought adjournment of four weeks as the response to Letters Rogatory from Singapore is awaited.

"It is submitted by senior advocate/Special Public Prosecutor for ED that Solicitor General/SPP is not available today and the matter may be adjourned. Reluctantly allowed. No further adjournment would be granted. Accordingly, put up the matter for consideration of cognisance on May 6," the judge said.

The prayer for adjournment was strongly opposed by senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for both the accused, on the ground that the prosecution is repeatedly seeking adjournments without any justifiable reason.

A team of lawyers including senior advocate Sonia Mathur, advocates N K Matta, Nitesh Rana, A R Aditya and Noor Rampal appeared for ED in the case.

During the hearing, ED submitted an affidavit in the court and informed it that it has sent a team headed by a special director of Directorate of Enforcement to Singapore to ensure that the relevant material evidence is obtained as quickly as possible in pursuance of Letters Rogatory (LR) issued by this court.

A strong prima facie case is made out to investigate money laundered in foreign countries by both the accused, it said, adding that this court has issued LRs to the UK for P Chidambaram and for Karti to Singapore.

The agency also told the court that Karti was examined on March 5,6,7 and 12 and was shown emails which were retrieved from the hard disks seized by ED during the course of searches at his premises and his associates S Bhaskaran and Ravi Visvanathan along with statements of his various associates.

"The applicant Karti Chidambaram chose not to reply the questions based on emails shown to him, raised questions and submitted stereotype responses. Thus, he is not cooperating in the investigation...The accused has deliberately and wilfully refused to answer even those questions which can only be within his knowledge and which are germane to the investigation," ED said