INX Media case: Karti Chidambaram in CBI custody for three more days, gets protection from ED arrest

While seeking extension of his custodial interrogation, Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, said that a CD has been recovered in connection with the case which needed to be sent to Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) for examination.

The defence lawyer, however, maintained that the CBI has no evidence against Karti. “It’s tragic for me (Karti). They have no new reason for my remand. They are inventing one. CBI has to justify remand every day and every minute,” Karti’s lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi said.

It is a ten-year-old case and all the documents are available with them and “they need my custody to harass me”, Karti said through his counsel.

Earlier in the day, the Delhi High court had granted interim protection from arrest by the Enforcement Directorate to Karti till March 20. A bench, comprising Justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta, who heard the matter in a packed courtroom, made it clear that if the special court grants Karti Chidambaram bail in the corruption case the CBI has registered against him, the ED will not arrest him till the next hearing before the high court.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also registered a money laundering case in the INX Media case.