INX Media case: SC asks CBI to respond to Karti Chidambaram's affidavit

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday asked CBI to respond to Karti Chidambaram's affidavit on his questioning in a case related to the alleged irregularities in FIPB clearance to INX Media in 2007.

During the hearing, CBI told the apex court that there is good, cogent reason for lookout circulars against former Union minister P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram.

While placing documents in sealed cover in SC, CBI said that Karti's case is not simple but involves jugglery of accounts and property abroad.

The agency is examining him in connection with a Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance given to media group INX Media for receiving funds from Mauritius when his father P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister.

Earlier the Madras High Court directed Karti, to approach a court in Delhi to quash the FIR lodged against him in a bribery case. The Madras High Court has informed Karti that he would have to take his petition to the Delhi High Court, as the case does not come under the jurisdiction of Madras High Court.

Karti had moved the court after the Supreme Court asked him to appear before the CBI in New Delhi, to help the investigating agency with its probe. Earlier in August, the Madras High Court had stayed the Look Out Circular (LOC) issued against Karti and four others. The Apex Court had later said that it would review the High Court order cancelling the LOC issued by Foreigner Regional Registration Officer (FRRO)

P Chidambaram had earlier issued a strong statement in response to CBI's FIR against Karti, saying the government was using the CBI and other agencies to target his son.

The FIPB approval was granted in "hundreds of cases", the senior Congress leader had said.