Supreme Court relief to Karti Chidambaram from arrest by ED

New Delhi: In a huge relief to Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union minister P. Chidambaram, the Supreme Court on Thursday restrained the Enforcement Directorate from arresting him in connection with the INX media case till March 26. 

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud, while extending the protection of stay of arrest granted by the Delhi high court till March 22, transferred to the apex court all the petitions filed by Karti challenging the powers of the ED to arrest him under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act even without registering an FIR. 

The bench said it would hear the transfer and all related petitions on March 26 to settle the issue. It passed this order on appeals filed by the ED challenging the March 9 order of the Delhi high court granting protection from arrest to Karti. The bench said it would also examine whether the high courts can grant anticipatory bail to an accused under the PMLA in a writ petition.  

Senior counsel Kapil Sibal strenuously argued that in the absence of registration of FIR by the Enforcement Directorate or receipt of a complaint, no arrest could be made.

Additional solicitor-general Tushar Mehta, appearing for ED, argued that the registration of ECIR (economic case information report) is itself based on a cognisable offence and the ED has the power to arrest, search, seize and attachment of properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

He said Bombay, Punjab and Haryana and Delhi high courts have interpreted Sections 19 and 45 of PMLA on power of arrest differently and, hence, he apex court should adjudicate the issue.   

In its appeal the ED said the high court could not have given anticipatory bail to Karti under its jurisdiction as this will become a legal device for persons like diamond merchant Nirav Modi, who had fled the country, even before they are questioned in ED cases. 

ED said it apprehended that more number of persons like Nirav Modi, who are facing money laundering cases will make an attempt to get relief by approaching the high court seeking stay of arrest. It said over 1,000 such cases are pending across the country being probed by ED and all these cases will he affected if  Karti’s anticipatory bail was not cancelled.

By an interim order passed on March 9, the Delhi HC has restrained ED from arresting Karti Chidambaram till March 20 (it was later extended till March 22) in the alleged money laundering case involving INX Media. Karti is accused of having received Rs 10 lakhs in kickbacks in 2007 to clear foreign investment worth Rs 305 crore for INX Media, which was owned by Peter and Indrani Mukherjea, at a time when his father P. Chidambaram was finance minister in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government. 

The ED prayed for quashing the High Court order and an interim stay of this order to enable ED to arrest Karti Chidambaram if it was warranted.Eom.