I am not a ’Hindustan leaver’: Karti to court

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Feb 28 2018 DH News: "I am not a Hindustan leaver," Karti Chidambaram told a Delhi court through his lawyer Abhishek Singhvi on Wednesday as the CBI produced him before the court.

The remarks came as Singhvi and the CBI lawyer locked horns over a 15-day remand application by the agency came up before duty magistrate in the national capital before whom Karti - son of former finance minister Chidambaram - was produced, hours after his arrest in Chennai airport where he landed in the morning from the United Kingdom.

Singhvi, in a politically loaded statement, argued that his client did not flee the country like others and always returned to India after his trips abroad.

"I (Karti) am not a ’Hindustan leaver’ like others. Instead I am a ’Hindustan returner’... I am not a fugitive," Singhvi, also a Rajya Sabha MP and senior Congress leader, told the court even as the court sent Karti to one-day CBI custody. He will be produced before a regular judge on Thursday who will decide on the CBI plea further.

The ’Hindustan Leaver’ remark comes against the backdrop of diamantaire Nirav Modi and his kin leaving India in the first week of January, days ahead of the CBI registering a case against him and others in connection with the Rs 12,717-crore bank scam.

According to the remand papers, Karti had not cooperated with the probe by joining the same until compelled to do so by the Supreme Court. He also denied that he or his company had any interaction with INX Media or that he was part of Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd (ASCPL), which the CBI described as a firm that he "indirectly" controlled.

The remand papers also claimed that his frequent visits abroad have confirmed apprehensions that he was tampering with the evidence lying there against him and others in the form of secret note received from the Ministry of Finance.

Singhvi argued that it was a "most bizarre case" and the arrest was motivated. "He has not been given a single summons in the last six months. And allegations are made by the CBI that he is not cooperating, when no summons has been issued after August 2017," Singhvi argued.