Delhi HC adjourns hearing on anticipatory bail plea of Karti Chidambaram in money laundering case
Jun 15, 2022
New Delhi [India], June 15 : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing on the anticipatory bail plea of Congress MP Karti Chidambaram for June 24 as senior Advocate Kapil Sibal was not available for argument due to COVID.
Karti had moved a petition seeking anticipatory bail in a money laundering case connected with a Chinese Visa case.
Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta adjourned the hearing after recording the submissions of Advocate Arshdeep Singh. He submitted that Kapil Sibal is down with COVID. Kindly give a date for the hearing. The bench allowed the request.
Another vacation bench on June 8 had reserved the order on anticipatory bail plea. However, an application was moved on June 10 seeking permission to lead some additional arguments by the counsel of the petitioner. It was allowed and the matter was listed for further hearing on Wednesday.
The application was moved after an order passed by Special CBI Judge M K Nagpal granting bail to S. Bhaskararaman in the Chinese Visa case registered by the CBI. It was stated that there are some material developments and they wish to file additional documents. The bench had said it requires further hearing.
Justice Poonam A Bamba had reserved the order on the bail plea after hearing the arguments of senior advocate Kapil Sibal for Karti and Additional Solicitor General (ADG) S V Raju for ED.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal had argued there is no material against the accused. No money laundering case is made out as there are no allegations that any money was given to Karti Chidambaram. If there is no money, it cannot be laundered. Still, they registered the ECIR. The accused has joined the investigation and cooperating in the same.
Senior Advocate Sibal also argued that the alleged transaction is of 2011 and they registered the case in 2022.
There is an apprehension of arrest as they registered the ECIR within ten days of registration of FIR by CBI. I am named in that ECIR, they can arrest me anytime without even calling me or giving me notice.
In the CBI case, I have been given the protection of 72 hours' notice before arrest. So that I can approach the court, Sibal argued.
Earlier he had argued that the value of the alleged transaction is of Rs 50 Lakh, it is less than one crore, in the view of this fact he should be granted bail.
On the other hand, ASG S V Raju submitted that the bail application is premature as there is no material we have in this case. We will investigate the case. Still, they have apprehension of arrest, why do they have so. If no case is made out against them then why do they have apprehension?
He argued that this application is premature as even though no summons were issued, only an ECIR was registered. Therefore, the apprehension of arrest is not genuine.
CBI judge M K Nagpal of the Rouse Avenue Court on June 3, 2022 had dismissed all three applications moved by Karti Chidambaram, S. Bhaskararaman and Vikas Makharia.
