Karti Chidambaram and wife to face trial in Income Tax evasion case. Madras High Court rejects Karti’s petitions against Income Tax

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In a big jolt to former Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s family, the Madras High Court rejected his son Karti Chidambaram and wife Srinidhi’s petition against Income Tax charge sheet of more than Rs.7 crores tax evasion in a land purchase case. Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Karti and wife tried all their tricks against the Income Tax case, where the trial court had already framed charges against them. Karti and his wife filed two cases in Madras High Court –  one was against the trial court’s framing of charges and quash the Income Tax charge sheet and the second was the validity of the court to handle his case. In the second case, Karti said that the special court for MP’s can’t initiate a trial against him as he was not MP during the tax evasion period.

 

In a video conference with advocates from both sides, Justice M Sundar rejected both petitions of Karti and wife and ordered them to face the trial. Karti was represented by noted lawyer and Congress MP KTS Tulsi and a battery of many lawyers including Amit Desai. Income Tax was represented by Public Prosecutors M Sheela and N Bhaskaran.  Adv Vijay Kumar appeared for the HC Registry in the transfer challenge petition.

Income Tax found that Karti and wife made huge tax evasion in a prime land sale in Muttukkadu village, Kanchipuram. Earlier, there was a controversial land purchase in Madras East Coast Road. Many fishermen accused Chidambaram family of grabbing their walking area to the sea shore[1]. Later on, as controversies arose, the family started selling a portion of their land parcels near the seashore, which was earlier planned for hotel construction.  Income Tax accused Karti of accepting Rs.6.38 crores and wife of accepting Rs.1.35 crores in cash illegally from the Kanchipuram land sale deal. This deal was exposed after the raid in December 2015 by the joint operation of Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Karti’s controversial firm Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd in connection with the Aircel Maxis scam.

Chidambaram and family were playing all kinds of tricks to sabotage the Income Tax cases. Income Tax has already approached the Supreme Court against the Madras High Court for quashing another case registered under Black Money Act for illegal properties abroad. In the current tax evasion case, Income Tax earlier objected to Justice Anitha Sumanth hearing the case citing that once as an Advocate she represented Karti’s controversial firm Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd. Income Tax Prosecutor M Sheela pointed out this seeking recusal of the Judge. The Judge’s husband Sumanth Raman can be frequently seen in many TV channel debates appearing to argue for Chidambaram family’s corruption cases also[2].

Karti is already accused along with his father Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis and INX Media bribery cases filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the ED. The ED has already attached Karti’s properties in Delhi, Ooty, London, and Spain[3].  His mother Nalini Chidambaram is also accused in the Sarada Chit Fund scam case filed by the CBI and Nalini is also facing CBI probe in a hotel grabbing case in connivance with Indian Overseas Bank officials, when Chidambaram was the Finance Minister

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