The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the CBI to file a status report in its probe against former Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s family’s involvement in a case of hotel grabbing in collusion with Indian Overseas Bank officials by dubiously declaring the hotel an NPA.
The CBI in September 2020 informed the Court that they are going to register a regular case after the preliminary enquiry found the role of Chidambaram’s wife Nalini and her sister Padmini in grabbing the hotel named as Comfort Inn in Tirupur in Tamil Nadu in connivance with certain IOB officials, when Chidambaram was the Finance Minister in 2007.
The agency also said that they have sought sanction for prosecution against certain bank officials. In 2016, the High Court had ordered CBI to probe the incident when the hotel’s promoter Dr. Kathirvel approached the court citing how his business was dubiously declared as NPA and Sarfesi Act was misused to capture his hotel by Nalini’s sister Padmini and Nalini’s interventions by giving compensations and Chidambaram’s letters to him in Finance Minister’s letter head.
Advocate Yatinder Chaudhary, representing Kathrivel told the Court that for more than two years CBI has not converted the preliminary inquiry into a regular case, after saying irregularities were found and sanction for prosecution were sought against bank officials.
Justice Yogesh Khanna ordered the CBI to file the status report in four weeks. During the hearing the IOB objected to seeking sanction for prosecution and Chidambaram’s family members argued that hotel promoter Kathirvel’s allegations were wrong.