Supreme Court seeks ED reply on Karti asset seizure

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the response of the Enforcement Directorate on a petition filed by Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram,  against provisional attachment of his properties in the Aircel-Maxis deal case.

A bench of justices Arun Mishra and Amitav Roy sought the detailed response from the ED by March 8 on an application seeking to declare the searches conducted by the Enforcement Directorate in the offices of Karti at Chennai and Delhi as “vexatious and illegal” and without jurisdiction.    

Senior advocate Anand Grover, who was appointed by the apex court as special prosecutor in the 2G cases and was representing the ED, said although they have filed some documents, some additional papers need to be filed and hence some time should be granted.

“You file reply to all the petitions of petitioner including the interlocutory applications by March 8,” the bench said.

The petitioner submitted that after the CBI court discharged Dayanidhi Maran and others in the Aircel-Maxis case in February 2017, the FIR filed by the CBI in this case stood terminated. Hence, there is no predicate/scheduled offence relating to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board approval to M/s Global Communications Holdings Services Ltd, Mauritius to invest in Aircel.