Court rejects Karti Chidambaram's discharge plea in tax evasion case

A special court here on Tuesday dismissed a discharge petition filed by Congress MP Karti Chidambaram and his wife Srinidhi in connection with a tax evasion case.

When the plea came up, Special Court for MLAs and MPs judge D Lingeshwaran found merit in the evidence submitted by the prosecution and dismissed it.

The judge then ordered the prosecution to go ahead with the framing of charges and sought both the accused to be present in the court on January 21.

He also said warrants would be issued if both failed to appear during next hearing.

The matter relates to the alleged non-disclosure of Rs 1.35 crore received by Karti Chidambaram, son of former union minister P Chidambaram, and his wife in cash for sale of land in Muttukadu near here.

The petitioners submitted that the transaction was completed and returns of income were filed in 2015 when Karti was not a member of Parliament.

The deputy director of income tax Investigation, Chennai, had filed a complaint on September 12, 2018 against the petitioners before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court-II (Economic Offences) for offences under sections 276c(1) and 277 of the I-T Act.

The case was later transferred to the special court.

During the hearing, the I-T department submitted that Karti received Rs 6.38 crore in cash while his wife received Rs 1.35 crore in cash for the sale of land near Muttukadu.

It was alleged that the Karti's mom Nalini Chidambaram received the payment in the form of cheque while their son and his wife received cash.

During a joint search conducted by officials from the IT department and Enforcement Directorate in connection with the case of Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd, on December 1, 2015, the department found several electronic materials related to the transaction of money, which was all seized.

The department had submitted the entire devices and data to the court.