In a day of dramatic developments, former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s son Karthi was arrested from Chennai Airport yesterday soon after he landed in the city after a long voyage from London.  He was later taken to New Delhi, interrogated and produced before the CBI Court at Patiala House in the national capital which remanded him to a day’s custody.

Accusations were made against Karthi and his INS Media which reportedly ‘received’ huge foreign investments during Chidambaram’s tenure as Union Finance Minister during the erstwhile Congress-led UPA’s regime at the Centre from 2004-14.  Karthi had earlier left for London after taking the Court’s permission to visit abroad to look after his business interests.

However, soon after landing at Chennai yesterday, Karthi was arrested by CBI sleuths which interrogated him at an undisclosed location at the Airport.  Later, Karthi was taken to New Delhi by them to arrive at the CBI headquarters at 01:30 p.m. where he was interrogated further after which he was produced at the CBI Court at Patiala House complex at 04:45 p.m.

CBI requested for 15 days’ custody as Karthi was to be interrogated thoroughly.  Karthi’s counsel and senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi argued stating that his client had always been cooperative in the investigation process and not a person who would ‘disappear’ into a foreign country.  Later, at 07:45 p.m., the Court allowed the CBI to take Karthi into custody not for 15 days but for a day.