New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday adjourned the Aircel-Maxis case, involving senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram and his son Karti, sine die, noting that the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) were seeking repeated adjournments to get responses to Letters Rogatory from various countries.
Without giving any date for further hearing, Special Judge O.P Saini adjourned the matter saying the prosecution may approach the court as and when the probe is complete.
The court on Thursday had granted anticipatory bail to Chidambaram and Karti in the corruption case filed by the CBI as well as in the money- laundering matter lodged by the Enforcement Directorate in relation to Aircel-Maxis deal.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Special Public Prosecutor Nitesh Rana, appearing for the CBI and the ED respectively, had sought adjournment on the ground that responses to Letters Rogatory were awaited.
The agencies requested the court to adjourn the matter for the first week in October. “Prosecution seeking date after date, matter deferred sine die. They are asked to approach the court as and when they receive Letters Rogatory from various countries”, the Court said.
The CBI and the ED are probing how Karti received clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for the deal in 2006 when his father was the Union Finance Minister.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, on Friday, refused to release for three more months the Rs. 10 crore deposited by Karti with the apex court’s registry for travelling abroad. A Bench, headed by Justice Deepak Gupta, said the amount will continue to remain in the fixed deposit for another three months.
Meanwhile, Chidambaram, who spent his first night at Tihar prison’s Jail No. 7 after a court sent him to two-week judicial custody in the INX Media corruption case, started his Friday with a light breakfast. Stripped of any special facilities, except a separate cell and a Western toilet as specified by the court, he was reported to have slept on a mat like other inmates, after dinner comprising rotis, dal, sabzi and rice last night as per the jail’s menu.
Like other under-trials, he will also have access to the prison’s library and can watch television for a specified period.
The apex court had allowed him to carry his spectacles and prescribed medicines to the jail and directed that he be kept in a separate cell in Tihar Jail, being a protectee under Z-security.
