A Delhi court on Monday granted seven weeks to the CBI to obtain sanction to prosecute former Union minister P Chidambaram and other serving or former public servants in the Aircel-Maxis deal case.
The court pulled up the agency for filing the charge sheet without proper sanction and told the CBI that if required documents were not filed by November 26, the next day of hearing, the court might take appropriate action.
“You (CBI) should not have filed the charge sheet. It is only increasing the pendency of the court. A lot of time of the court has been wasted due to this,” Special Judge OP Saini said.
The agency had on July 19 filed a charge sheet against the Congress leader, his son Karti, 10 individuals, including public servants, and six companies as accused in the case.
The judge allowed the CBI’s request for grant of time after senior advocate Sonia Mathur, representing the agency, informed the judge that sanctions were awaited.
“If the sanction is not received, appropriate action will be taken,” the court said.
“Granting of sanction is under active consideration of the government,” Mathur said.
Chidambaram’s name is among the persons against whom sanction for prosecution from authorities concerned was awaited.
The court also adjourned a money laundering case, which is an off-shoot of the Aircel-Maxis deal case, against Karti and others, after Mathur and advocates NK Matta and Nitesh Rana requested an adjournment on behalf of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The ED had on July 13 filed a charge sheet against Karti and others for the alleged offence of money laundering.
However, the former Union minister was not arrayed as an accused in the case. PTI
