SC asks ED to respond to plea by Karti to travel abroad

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to respond to a plea by Karti Chidambaram, son of Congress leader and former Union minister P Chidambaram, for permission to travel to France, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom for a few months, in view of various international tennis tournaments.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to file his response to the application filed by Karti.

Karti has been facing several criminal cases including the one in connection with the grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance in the INX-Media case.

In his application, Karti said that he was vice-president of Tamil Nadu Tennis Association and a member of Indian Tennis Players Association.

His travel plan was scheduled to start from January 21 and end on June 23 in view of international tennis tournaments organised by Totus Tennis Ltd

He said that he had earlier been allowed to travel abroad and, sincerely and scrupulously adhered to all the conditions imposed by the court.

Earlier, the court had given a strong rebuff to Karti as he sought urgent hearing on his plea.

The top court had allowed Karti to travel to the UK between September 20 and September 30, last, despite the ED's objection that he has been "blatantly misusing" the liberty granted to him by the court to protract the investigation in the case.

The ED had said that the liberty granted to Karti Chidambaram by the apex court was "blatantly and brazenly hampering, subverting, jeopardising and protracting" the probe pending against him in the Aircel-Maxis case, which the agency has to complete in six months.

Before that Karti was allowed to visit the UK, France and the US from July 23 to 31.