The Madras High Court on Friday dismissed a batch of writ petitions filed by Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited, a firm allegedly associated with Member of Parliament Karti Chidambaram and reportedly involved in the INX Media case, against curbs imposed by Enforcement Directorate (ED) on operating its bank accounts, besides provisional attachment of its assets worth ₹31.55 crore.
Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana rejected the writ petitions after Additional Solicitor General G. Rajagopalan brought it to her notice that though the proceeds of the crime were ₹62.68 crore, the ED so far attached properties worth ₹54.03 crore and the adjudicating authority under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) of 2002 had confirmed the provisional attachment order on March 29 this year.
After recording his submissions regarding the proceedings that had taken place pursuant to the filing of the writ petitions, the judge said the petitioner firm would now have to challenge the confirmation orders passed by the adjudicating authority before the Appellate Tribunal for PMLA. “For the foregoing reasons, all these writ petitions fail and the same are dismissed as devoid of merits. There shall be no order as to costs,” the judge concluded.
Charge against Karti
Initially, it was the Central Bureau of Investigation that had booked a case in 2017 accusing Mr. Karti of having aided INX Media promoters Indrani Mukherjea and her husband Peter Mukherjea to scuttle a probe into receipt of foreign direct investments without the approval of the Foreign Investments Promotion Board. It was alleged that he had received kickbacks through the petitioner firm controlled by him indirectly.
Based on this FIR, the ED registered a Enforcement Case Information Report and recorded a statement from Ms. Mukherjea that Mr. Karti demanded $1 million for helping the INX group.
Subsequently, the ED went on to attach the properties of the business consultancy firm and also wrote to the latter’s bankers to not permit any transaction, with respect to current accounts as well as fixed deposits, without its consent.
Challenging the attachment orders as well as letters written by the ED to bankers, the petitioner firm claimed that Mr. Karti had nothing to do with it. The consultancy firm also said that the ECIR had been booked on the basis of a statement made by Ms. Mukherjea, who was a murder case accused languishing in jail. It was nothing but a concocted statement which was not corroborated even by her husband, it pointed out.
