Congress MP Karti Chidambaram has now approached the Delhi High Court with an anticipatory bail application in the Enforcement Directorate's money laundering case that is linked to the Central Bureau of Investigation's case in the bribes for visa probe.
The fresh application comes a day after a Special CBI court in Delhi denied him anticipatory bail in the case noting that the ED's interrogation might be affected if he is armed with an anticipatory bail order.
The court had also dismissed an application by the MP seeking that the order be kept in abeyance for seven days to allow a challenge to be filed in a higher court.
On Saturday, the Congress leader filed a fresh anticipatory bail application in the Delhi High Court, through advocate Akshat Gupta. The plea was mentioned in court on Saturday, following which it has now been listed for hearing on Monday before a Bench of Justice Poonam Bamba.
Notably, while dismissing his plea for anticipatory bail, the CBI court had also vacated the interim protection from arrest granted to him and directed him to join the ED's investigation as and when called.
In his initial anticipatory bail application, Karti had argued that even the CBI case did not disclose any specific offence committed by him. Moreover, he had said that there was no apprehension of him fleeing the proceedings, tampering with evidence or influencing witnesses.
The ED had opposed the plea by arguing that granting him anticipatory bail would seriously affect the probe. It had added that the apprehension of arrest at this stage was unreasonable as they had just begun the probe.
The special court had said while dismissing the plea that the CBI had sufficient evidence to show the creation of “proceeds of crime” in the form of bribe payments.
The case pertains to the approval granted to reuse around 250 project visas for a thermal power plant project in Mansa, Punjab in 2011. The CBI has alleged that Karti Chidambaram’s chartered accountant S. Bhaskararaman had allegedly demanded a bribe to get the request approved from the Ministry of Home Affairs. Karti’s father P. Chidambaram was the Union Home Minister at the time.
