SC Dismisses Karti Chidambaram's Plea For Return Of ₹ 10 Crore Deposited As Condition For Travelling Abroad

The Supreme Court today dismissed a plea of Congress MP Karti Chidambaram seeking return of Rs 10 crore which he had deposited with the court's registry for travelling abroad.

Karti Chidambaram, son of Senior Advocate and former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, is facing criminal cases being probed by CBI and ED. He was elected as MP from Sivaganga constituency in Tamil Nadu in the recently held general elections.

A vacation bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Aniruddha Bose rejected Karti's plea and orally said, "Pay attention to your constituency."

The bench was hearing Karti's plea in which he had sought return of Rs 10 crore deposited earlier by him in the apex court's registry, claiming he had taken the money on loan and was paying interest on it.

It was on January 19 that the SC bench headed by CJI Gogoi directed Karti to deposit Rs 10 crore as a condition for granting permission to travel to to France, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom for tinternational tennis tournaments organised by a company called 'Totus Tennis Ltd' having its registered office in the UK.

On September 18 last year it had allowed Karti to travel to the UK from September 20-30.

The ED had said that Karti, who is also facing proceedings in cases like Aircel-Maxis and money laundering matters, has been "blatantly misusing" the liberty granted by court in allowing him to travel abroad and has been using the same to protract the investigation in the case.

(With PTI inputs)