New Delhi: The son of former Union minister P Chidambaram and Businessman Karti Chidambaram, was sent to one-day police custody by a CBI court in Delhi on Wednesday, hours after his arrest at Chennai airport in a corruption case.
The CBI, which sought 15 days’ custody of Karti, told the court of metropolitan judge Sumit Anand that he was arrested because he had not cooperated with investigators.
“Karti Chidambaram is evasive in his replies…He made incorrect statements with respect to evidence. All this delays conclusion of investigation,” the CBI said.
The agency also claimed that on February 17, an accused recorded a statement in front of a magistrate stating that Karti Chidambaram demanded $1 million in foreign currency to settle the INX case.
The 46-year-old is accused of using his influence in the finance ministry to help INX Media get approval for foreign investments from three Mauritius-based investors. His father was the finance minister then.
“I should have been a Hindustan Leaver like the others,” Karti told the court, apparently referring to businessmen Vijay Mallya, Lalit Modi and Nirav Modi — who are accused of financial crimes and have left the country.
The Congress, in a press conference, accused PM Narendra Modi and his ministers for the “political witch-hunt”.
Karti’s lawyer, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, rubbished the investigative agency’s notion as “bizarre, fake”.
