PMLA Appellate Tribunal upholds ED attachment of Karti Chidambaram's assets

New Delhi, Oct 31 (PTI) A PMLA Appellate Tribunal has upheld a 2018 provisional attachment of assets order issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against Congress MP Karti Chidambaram in the INX money laundering case investigation.

The properties included a part of a flat located in Delhi's Jorbagh area and deposits worth a few crores of rupees kept in a bank branch in Chennai.

Fifty three-year-old Karti, son of senior Congress leader and former Union cabinet minister P Chidambaram, had filed an appeal before the Appellate Tribunal for the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in 2019, seeking to set aside the attachment order issued by the federal probe agency on the grounds that the ED did not file the chargesheet in this case within the stipulated 365 days time limit.

His lawyers argued that, hence, the continued attachment of the house was "bad in law".

According to the PMLA, a provisional attachment order issued by the ED, after its confirmation by the adjudicating authority, shall continue during investigation for a period not exceeding 365 days.

The Tribunal, in an interim order issued in September 2019, had directed that status quo be maintained on the attachment order, including against the eviction of the owner from the said house.

"The protection given through the interim order dated 03.09.2019 to the residential property of Appellant (Karti) against the eviction from the said property and against the notice issued under Section 8 (4) of the PMLA, cannot be continued with on the disposal of the Appeal," the Tribunal said in its order issued on October 29.

It, however, added that according to a 2022 Supreme Court order in the matter of Vijay Madanlal Choudhary, possession of a property can be taken "only" if exceptional reasons exist.

"In view of the aforementioned discussions in the light of the afore cited Judgments, we dismiss the Appeal...Applications, if any, are disposed of accordingly," it said.

The ED said during arguments that the delay was due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the "special and peculiar" circumstances arising from it as a complete lockdown was ordered in the country, making physical movement of any person, including that of the investigating officers, extremely difficult as the disease was contagious with a threat to life.

The agency pleaded before the Tribunal that the appeal should be dismissed.

The Tribunal said that a June, 2020 Supreme Court judgment cited by Karti's counsel for seeking the relief was issued in the context of grant of default bail, which has a direct bearing on personal liberty.

The present matter (provisional attachment of Kart's assets) relates to the continuation of attachment of movable and immovable properties of the appellant (Karti), unlike the issue of personal liberty, the Tribunal said, endorsing the ED action.

It added that "the extraordinary circumstances (have) arisen due to Covid-19 would have had an impact on the pace of the investigations being conducted".

The ED had registered a PMLA case in the INX deal case on the basis of a CBI FIR and had alleged that irregularities took place in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when his father was the Union finance minister. PTI NES KSS KSS