SC allows Karti to travel abroad after depositing Rs 10 crore with its registry

The Supreme Court Wednesday allowed Karti Chidambaram, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, to travel abroad after depositing Rs 10 crore with its registry. The apex court asked Karti to appear before the Enforcement Directorate on March 5, 6, 7 and 12 for questioning in connection with the INX Media and Aircel Maxis cases, saying "don't play around with the law".

"You go wherever you want to go, between February 10 to 26 but you must cooperate with the investigation," a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said. "Please tell your clients that he will have to cooperate. You have not cooperated. We wanted to say a lot of things. We are not saying them right now," the bench said. Besides asking Karti to deposit Rs 10 crore with the secretary general of the Supreme Court, the bench also asked him to file an undertaking that he would return and cooperate with the investigation.

Karti has sought permission to travel abroad from February 10 to 26 and again from March 23 to 31. The bench was hearing Karti's plea seeking permission to travel to France, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom for the next few months for international tennis tournaments organised by a company called 'Totus Tennis Ltd' having its registered office in the UK.