Congress leader Karti Chidambaram had to face a big legal defeat. In the money laundering case, the PMLA Appellate Tribunal has rejected his appeal and upheld the order of confiscation of ED’s assets. This case is related to the famous INX Media money laundering case. The tribunal said in its order that no mistake has been found regarding the action of ED and the seized properties.
This ED case started with an FIR of CBI, which was registered in 2017. In February 2018, CBI arrested Karti Chidambaram from Chennai Airport. A year later, in August 2019, his father and former Finance Minister of the country P. Chidambaram was also arrested first by CBI and then by ED.
Property worth crores seized in action
In October 2018, ED had seized the properties of Karti Chidambaram and a company linked to him. These assets include a share (50%) of a house in Jor Bagh area of Delhi, whose value is said to be around Rs 16.05 crore, several bank accounts in Indian Overseas Bank based in Chennai.
Overall, ED had seized immovable property worth Rs 43.8 crore and movable property worth Rs 10.13 crore. On October 29, the tribunal’s judicial member Rajesh Malhotra and administrative member Balesh Kumar issued the order.
What did Karti Chidambaram’s lawyer say?
The tribunal said that the ED had filed the prosecution complaint on June 1, 2020. Even though this complaint was filed after the stipulated time i.e. 365 days, the relaxation in the time limit imposed by the Supreme Court during the Covid pandemic has been kept in mind. Therefore ED’s action was considered correct.
Advocates Arshdeep Khurana, Akshat Gupta and Sidak Singh Anand, appearing for Karti Chidambaram, said that the ED attachment should have ended automatically as the agency did not file the complaint within the stipulated time. He cited the Supreme Court’s S. Kasi vs. State case and said that the relief of extending the deadline given due to Covid is applicable only in judicial matters and not on the actions of agencies like ED.
What order did the Supreme Court give?
On behalf of ED, lawyers Zoheb Hussain, Vivek Gurnani and Kanishk Maurya said that during the Covid lockdown, the functioning of the court was almost closed and the time limit was relaxed under the order of the Supreme Court. However, the tribunal has given some relief to Karti Chidambaram. In the earlier order, instructions were given to maintain ‘status quo’ on his property.
The tribunal said that now after the appeal is rejected, this protection will end, but ED will be able to take possession of the property only in exceptional reasons. The tribunal said this while citing the Supreme Court’s decision of Vijay Madanlal Chaudhary vs. Union of India (2022).
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