The Delhi High Court on Friday granted bail to former Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti in the INX Media bribe case. In another development, hours after the bail, the father and the son applied for anticipatory bail in the 2G Court in the Aircel-Maxis case. The court is expected to hear their petition on Saturday morning.
In a related development, the CBI asked Karti to join the probe in the INX Media case on Tuesday, when the agency is questioning another accused Peter Mukerjea.
Granting the bail, Justice SP Garg put conditions that Karti has to deposit his passport before the trial court judge and have to submit Rs 10 lakh bail bond as surety.
He should also be available all the time to probe agencies and all foreign travel should be with the approval of the court, it said. Citing the general guidelines for granting the bail, the High Court noted that all the evidences have been obtained by CBI and most of the statements of the witnesses were also procured.
The High Court also said Karti should not close down any of his bank accounts or changes the structure of his companies.
Karti was represented by senior lawyers and Congress leaders Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Singhvi. Senior lawyer Gopal Subramanium also appeared for Karti.
The CBI was represented by ASG Tushar Mehta.
Meanwhile in the Aircel-Maxis case, the agencies have directed P Chidambaram and Karti to be available for the next week. Soon after the intimation from the agencies, the duo rushed to 2G Court Judge OP Saini seeking anticipatory bail.
The petitions will be heard on Saturday morning. last week, the Supreme Court’s 2G Bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra and Navin Sinha has ordered CBI and ED to finish the probe in Aircel-Maxis scam within six months and also ordered to submit status report on the next hearing scheduled on April 2.