The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the plea of Karti Chidambaram, son of former union P Chidambaram and the newly elected MP from the Sivaganga constituency in Tamil Nadu to take back the security amount of Rs 10 Crore that he had deposited as a condition for going abroad. When Karti said he wanted the money back to deposit it again as security for going abroad, the apex court askesd the newly elected MP from the Sivaganga constituency in tamil Nadu to “Pay attention to your constituency.” The court asked him to deposit an additional Rs 10 Crore.
It is the second time in less than a month that the apex court has declined to consider Karti’s plea seeking release of his Rs 10 crore deposit, submitted as security for travelling abroad. Earlier too, Karti’s counsel told the court he had taken a loan to submit the security deposit and is paying interest on it.
Karti is facing probe in the INX Media and the Aircel Maxis cases. On January 30, a Bench of the Chief Justice had allowed him to travel abroad but with a condition of depositing the said amount.
After making the deposit he travelled abroad, but again approached the top court earlier this month seeking permission to travel US, Spain and Germany for international tennis tournaments in May and June. The Chief Justice allowed his plea and ordered him to deposit another Rs 10 crore as security.
As a result, Karti sought that the sum deposited earlier, after the January 30 order, be released as he had to take a loan to raise the amount and is paying interest.
Karti contested the Lok Sabha elections from Tamil Nadu’s Sivaganga parliamentary seat on a Congress ticket and rode on its ally’s pro DMK wave to win the seat.
–India Legal Bureau