New Delhi:A Special Court on Wednesday granted relief to former Union Minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram by allowing them exemption from personal appearance in the INX Media money laundering case.
Advocate Arshdeep Singh Khurana appearing for P Chidambaram and Karti Chidambaram informed the court that they both were busy in the assembly election campaign in Tamil Nadu and have several political engagements.
Meanwhile, co-accused Peter Mukharjea has moved a bail application in the matter in which the court sought response from Enforcement Directorate (ED) and slated the matter for April 16 for further hearing.
Also read:Chidambaram's direction to INX Media to help Karti important step in money laundering: ED
The same court has recently issued summons to P Chidambaram and others in the INX Media case including several firms whose names were there in the charge sheet.
Special Judge MK Nagpal while taking the cognisance on the ED charge sheet said, "I find sufficient material and grounds for proceeding further in the matter against all the ten accused persons named in the complaint, out of which six accused are companies, for the commission of an offence under Section 3 read with Section 70 of the PMLA, which is punishable under Section 4 of the said Act."
Accused P Chidambaram and S Bhaskararaman were arrested during the investigation of the case and they both are presently on bail. Court also noted that the extensive arguments advanced by Amit Mahajan, the standing counsel of the central government and N K Matta, the special public prosecutor for the ED have also carefully perused the entire record of the case.