The Enforcement Directorate on Monday told the Supreme Court that Karti Chidambaram, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, was “blatantly misusing” the freedom granted to him by the court to travel abroad, reported PTI. The agency said Chidambaram was unavailable for investigation for 51 days on account of his foreign visits.

Karti Chidambaram’s freedom was “blatantly and brazenly hampering, subverting, jeopardising and protracting” the investigation against him in the Aircel Maxis Case, said the Enforcement Directorate in its response. The agency has to complete the investigation within six months.

The agency was responding to a petition filed by Karti Chidambaram seeking permission to travel to the United Kingdom. It will be heard on Tuesday.

On July 23, the Supreme Court had allowed Karti Chidambaram to travel to the UK, France and the United States between July 23 and July 31, subject to certain conditions. It had asked him to surrender his passport to the Enforcement Directorate upon his return.

“Whenever he was confronted with the documents, he showed his irritation, sometimes anger, and then conveniently avoided to answer the questions on one pretext or the other,” it said. The Enforcement Directorate added that Karti Chidambaram is yet to provide on time the documents needed for investigation.

The Aircel-Maxis case pertains to clearances that the Foreign Investment Promotion Board granted to the firm M/S Global Communication Holding Services Ltd for investment in Aircel in 2006. Chidambaram was the finance minister at the time, while Karti Chidambaram allegedly facilitated bribes in the Aircel-Maxis transaction. The investigative agency is also looking into why P Chidambaram approved the investment when only the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs can give the green signal.