NEW DELHI: A day after granting bail to former Union minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti in the Aircel Maxis cases, a special CBI court on Friday adjourned the hearing sine die (without any future date being allotted) in the cases, noting that the investigating agencies, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED), were seeking repeated adjournments.

“Since further investigation is pending since long and the prosecution has been seeking adjournment after adjournment, it would be in the interest of justice if the instant cases are adjourned sine die, with liberty to the prosecution to get them revived as soon as it is able to complete the investigation on collection of further evidence and/or receipt of response to letters rogatory (LRs) sent to different countries,” said special judge O P Saini.

On Thursday, the court had granted anticipatory bail to the Chidambarams in the corruption and money laundering cases, filed by the CBI and ED respectively, related to the Aircel-Maxis deal. The matter was listed on Friday for arguments on the cognizance of chargesheets. However, solicitor general Tushar Mehta and special public prosecutor Nitesh Rana, appearing for the CBI and ED, respectively, sought adjournment on the ground that response to LRs was awaited.

The agencies requested the court to adjourn the matter for the first week of October. The court, however, said adjourning the matter sine die would save the time of the court and that of the prosecutors and investigators too.

While granting bail to Chidambarams on Thursday, the court had observed that “there is no apparent possibility of the applicants/accused fleeing from justice”. The court had drawn a comparison between the Chidambarams and Dayanidhi Maran and others in the case in terms of the alleged illegal gratification. “The allegations against the applicants/accused are also not of a grave magnitude as the amount of alleged bribe is only Rs 1.13 crore which is a paltry amount in comparison to the allegations against Dayanidhi Maran and others, where the bribe amount was Rs 749 crore, but he was not arrested,” Judge Saini had said, adding that an investigating agency should not discriminate between two similarly situated accused, as this is against the rule of law.

The CBI and the ED are probing how Karti received clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board for the Aircel-Maxis deal in 2006 when his father was Union finance minister.

Since further investigation is pending ... and the prosecution has been seeking adjournment after adjournment, it would be in the interest of justice if the cases are adjourned sine die, with liberty to the prosecution to get them revived as soon as it is able to complete the investigation on collection of further evidence and/or receipt of response to letters rogatory sent to different countries, the court said.

