The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked S Bhaskararaman, an accused in the INX Media case, to respond to an Enforcement Directorate petition challenging the bail granted to him by a special court in March, PTI reported. Bhaskararaman is the chartered accountant of former Union minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti Chidambaram.

Bhaskararaman was arrested on February 16 from a five-star hotel in Delhi in connection with the INX Media money-laundering case. The Enforcement Directorate alleged that Bhaskararaman had been “assisting Karti Chidambaram to manage his huge ill-gotten wealth in India and abroad”.

The Enforcement Directorate’s special counsel, Nitesh Rana, argued that the chartered accountant’s alleged offences were a serious crime. “He has not cooperated with the investigation,” Rana said. “The investigation conducted so far shows deep involvement of the accused in committing the offence of money laundering and shielding other accused persons who are part of the deep-rooted conspiracy.”

The high court scheduled the next hearing for August 16.

The case

In May 2017, the ED had filed a money laundering case against Karti Chidambaram, INX Media and its directors, including Indrani and Peter Mukerjea. In 2007, INX Media had got clearance from the Foreign Exchange Promotion Board to receive foreign funding of Rs 4 crore, but actually received Rs 305 crore, It then paid Karti Chidambaram’s company Rs 10 lakh for help to escape any punitive action, the Enforcement Directorate told the court. Presumably, Karti Chidambaram was to use the influence of his father P Chidambaram, then India’s finance minister, to help the media company.