Delhi High Court fixes April 16 for Karti Chidambaram's plea to quash CBI FIR

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday fixed April 16 to hear a plea of Congress MP Karti Chidambaram seeking to quash a CBI FIR against him for allegedly helping an alcoholic beverage company Diageo Scotland over the ban on the duty-free sale of its whisky.

Justice Vikas Mahajan deferred the hearing after Karti's lawyer said the arguing counsel was not available.

"Renotify on April 16," the court said.

Karti has argued there was a "gross delay" in registration of the "illegal" FIR on January 1 and claimed it was malafide and borne out of "political vendetta and regime revenge".

The case, fourth against the Congress MP, stemmed from a preliminary inquiry registered by the CBI in 2018 to look into the alleged irregularities in granting FIPB clearance when his father P Chidambaram was the finance minister.

The case was registered against Katra Holdings, ASCPL, Karti and others.

"There is gross delay in registration of the impugned FIR in as much as the allegations pertain to the period of 2004-2010 (as per the FIR) whereas the subject FIR has been registered in 2025, i.e., after 20 years," the plea alleged.

The plea, filed through advocate Akshat Gupta, said as the FIR was filed against unidentified public servants without obtaining prior approval of the competent authority, its registration was unlawful and any inquiry or investigation was also illegal.

None of the offences alleged against the petitioner were even prima facie made out, it added.

The CBI registered the case against Karti for allegedly giving relief to Diageo Scotland over a ban imposed by ITDC (India Tourism Development Corporation) on the duty-free sale of its whisky, officials said on January 9.

Suspicious payment was made to Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt. Ltd (ASCPL), “an entity controlled” by Karti and his close aide S Bhaskararaman by Diageo Scotland and Sequoia Capitals, the FIR said.

In April 2005, ITDC, which had a monopoly over the sale of imported duty-free liquor in India, put an embargo on the sale of the Diageo Group’s duty-free products in India, which resulted in a huge loss to Diageo Scotland as 70 per cent of its business in India pertained to the sale of Johnnie Walker whisky, it is alleged.

On January 10, a court directed the CBI to give a three-day prior written notice to Karti in the corruption case.