Supreme Court extends stay on arrest of Karti Chidambaram again

New Delhi: The Supreme Court extended interim protection from arrest to Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union minister P. Chidambaram, till July 3 in connection with the INX media case, as the matter could not be heard on Tuesday. The top court had earlier extended the interim protection from arrest till Tuesday. A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud, while extending the protection of stay of arrest granted by the Delhi high court, had transferred to the apex court all the petitions filed by Karti challenging the powers of the ED to arrest him under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act even without registering an FIR.

It was argued on behalf of the Enforcement Directorate that the registration of ECIR (economic case information report) is itself based on a cognisable offence and the ED has the power to arrest, search, seize and attachment of properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.