The Supreme Court on Monday said that it will first see the evidence collected by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, before deciding to allow him to travel to london. The bench ordered CBI to present its investigation report in a sealed cover on Thursday.
The investigating agency had approached the Supreme Court against a Madras High Court order staying a look out Notice (lON) issued against Karti ever since he is being probed for allegedly receiving bribe from a company INX Media for grant of FIPB approval during the tenure of his father as Finance Minister. This prevented him from travelling abroad.
On Monday, Karti’s counsel senior advocate Kapil Sibal requested court to allow his client visit University of Cambridge to attend an annual lecture on Rule of law in Pakistan. The event, sponsored by him, is scheduled for November 10.
The bench said it wanted to strike a balance after satisfying its conscience that no harm will be caused to the investigation if Karti is allowed to visit abroad. For this, the bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said that it required to see the contents of the sealed cover produced before it by CBI.