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On 23rd July, Madras High Court quashed the Look Out Circular (LOC) issued by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Karti Chidambaram, son of former Chief Minister P. Chidambaram on the ground that impugned circular has been issue in “Hot Haste”
Instant case has been put forth before the Division bench of Madras High Court consisting of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose. Wherein Mr. Chidambaram was accused of receiving illicit payment from a private company, called INX Media, which has been made in return of allowing the said company to break a foreign investment.
It was further alleged by CBI that INX Media got an approval of receiving Rs. 4.62 crore investment from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). The Company, however, received Rs. 305 crore from two companies based in Mauritius, with the companies paying a premium of Rs. 800 per share. The CBI has alleged that the officials investigating the misappropriation were made silent through “influence in the finance ministry” while his father, P. Chidambaram, was the Finance Minister.
Inconsonance with such allegation and further investigation CBI issued LOC which was quashed by the Bench. The bench opined that “In view of the finding of this Court that the conditions precedent for issuance of the impugned LOC were absent, and the impugned LOC is liable to set aside on that ground, we need not go into the questions of whether an LOC could have been issued without statutory sanction, or whether the respondents concerned had jurisdiction to issue the impugned LOC. However, in our view, the Look Out Circular was issued in hot haste when the conditions precedent for issuance of such Circular did not exist. The impugned Look Out Circular is, thus, liable to be set aside.”
The court further observed that the LOC has been issue “prematurely, in haste” as the FIR did not accused Mr. Chidambaram of misappropriation, embezzlement, financial illegalities or any economic offences. The impugned circular was issued the day after the notice was addressed to Chidambaram to appear before the Station House Officer (SHO)/ Investigation Officer (IO). Court further observed that on the day of issuance of circular there was no reason to assert that the accused would not appear before the SHO/IO.
“Such LOCs cannot be issued as a matter of course, but when reasons exist, where an accused deliberately evades arrest or does not appear in the trial Court. The argument of the learned Additional Solicitor General that a request for Look Out Circular could have been made in view of the inherent power of the investigating authority to secure attendance and cooperation of an accused is contrary to the aforesaid circulars and thus, not sustainable.”
Therefore, Court quashed the LOC whilst clarifying that such quashing of LOC will not affect the criminal proceeding initiated in pursuance of FIR or any other proceeding against Mr. Chidambaram.
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