An appellate tribunal under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act has dismissed an appeal filed by Congress MP Karti P Chidambaram against the Enforcement Directorate attaching his properties and bank accounts in the INX Media money laundering case, Bar and Bench reported.

The central agency had attached several of the MP’s bank accounts and his share in a South Delhi property in an order issued in October 2018. A year later, the adjudicating authority under the PMLA upheld the attachment of the properties.

The case pertains to alleged irregularities in the clearance of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board’s Foreign Direct Investment – the government’s approval for foreign investment – to INX Media in 2007 when P Chidambaram, the father of Karti Chidambaram, was the Union finance minister.

Karti Chidambaram had challenged the attachment of his properties before the appellate tribunal, contending that the order was bad in law as the Enforcement Directorate had filed the prosecution complaint against him more than 365 days after the confirmation of attachment, Bar and Bench reported.

This violated Section 8(3)(a) of the PMLA, which limits the attachment period to 365 days during an investigation, the appeal said. The delay required the release of the attached properties, it added.

But the central agency contended that the delay was caused by the Covid-19 limitations, as directed by the Supreme Court, Bar and Bench reported.

In its order on Wednesday, the appellate tribunal noted that the prosecution complaint was filed on June 1, 2020, more than 365 days after the adjudicating authority’s confirmation order on March 29, 2019, The Hindu reported.

However, the period between March 15, 2020, and February 28, 2022, stood excluded for all judicial and quasi-judicial proceedings owing to pandemic-related restrictions, the bench added.

“The enormity of the situation for the Investigating Officer to have completed the investigation during the period of lockdown, when he was not even authorised to visit the witnesses or record their statements needs to be appreciated,” Bar and Bench quoted the bench as saying.

The order added: “The extraordinary circumstances arisen due to Covid-19 would have had an impact on the pace of the investigations being conducted.”

It dismissed Karti Chidambaram’s appeal but said that the central agency could take possession of the attached properties only for “exceptional reasons”.

A first information report was filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the case on May 15, 2016.

The complaint alleged that Karti Chidambaram used his father’s influence to interfere in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board’s process to clear INX Media’s application. He allegedly received Rs 10 lakh in kickbacks from INX Media for his interference. The Central Bureau of Investigation has also accused INX Media of bribing Karti Chidambaram to scuttle a tax investigation.

In May 2017, taking cognisance of the Central Bureau of Investigation’s FIR, the Enforcement Directorate filed a money laundering case against Karti Chidambaram, INX Media and its directors.

Karti Chidambaram was briefly arrested by the CBI in the case in 2018.

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