The top court had on July 23 allowed Karti Chidambaram to visit the UK. (File)
Karti Chidambaram, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, has been "blatantly misusing" the liberty granted to him by the court to travel abroad, using it to protract investigations, Enforcement Directorate informed the Supreme Court in a response on Monday.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud fixed for Tuesday, hearing Karti Chidambaram's plea for permission to travel to the UK
ED, represented by Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, has filed its response alleging that Karti Chidambaram, who faces proceedings in the Aircel-Maxis and alleged that he had been "blatantly misusing" the liberty granted by court to travel abroad.
The probe agency added this freedom was "blatantly and brazenly hampering, subverting, jeopardising and protracting" the investigation pending against him in the Aircel Maxis Case, which the agency has to complete in six months.
The agency also said: "The Petitioner/applicant during this period of 6 months has remained unavailable for investigation for a total number of 51 days due to his foreign visits.
The reply filed by Rajeev Sharma, Deputy Director of ED, said: "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."
Karti Chidambaram has also failed to provide the documents required during investigations as per schedule and in the circumstances, an effective investigation can take place only during his custodial integration, the agency said.
The top court had on July 23 allowed Karti Chidambaram to visit the United Kingdom, France and the United States of America from July 23 to 31, making it clear that he has to abide by the conditions imposed by it in an earlier similar order.
The bench had said that he will have to surrender his passport with the ED when he returns from his visit.