Karti Chidambaram

Justice Kaur, who did not give any reason for her recusal, said she would refer the matter to the Acting Chief Justice for assigning the bail plea to another bench for today itself.

Special judge Sunil Rana pronounced the order after the CBI said that he was not required for custodial interrogation.

The court will also pass order on Karti's plea seeking a separate cell in Tihar Jail and urgent hearing of his bail plea today itself.

Karti Chidambaram was produced in the court of Special Judge Sunil Rana, before whom CBI counsel V K Sharma moved an application for judicial custody of the senior Congress leader's son.

Justice S Ravindra Bhat also made it clear that in case the special court grants Karti bail in the CBI case which has registered a corruption case against him, the ED will not arrest him till the next hearing before it.

The matter was mentioned in-chamber before Justice S Ravindra Bhat who listed it for hearing tomorrow.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra requested the acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court to allocate Karti's matter to an appropriate bench so that it can be taken up for hearing tomorrow.

Karti was yesterday sent to three more days of CBI custody with the court saying that the extension of his remand was necessary to maintain continuity in the investigation to secure evidence to arrive at the truth.

Claiming he was innocent and falsely implicated, Karti submitted that he hailed from a well-known, respected and leading family and by occupation he had been in business for several years.

The agency, which produced Karti on expiry of his five-day police custody before special judge Sunil Rana, said though there has been "substantial progress" in last four days into the investigation into the case, he has "not been cooperating" and not parting with his phones passwords and to every question he has been saying that "I am politically victimised".

Special Judge Sunil Rana said the court will hear the matter at 2 pm today as Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta, who had appeared before it on the last hearing, was not available for arguments on behalf of the CBI.

Special Judge Sunil Rana said the court will hear the matter at 2 pm today as Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta, who had appeared before it on the last hearing, was not available for arguments on behalf of the CBI.

Karti said the ED cannot act against him until the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) completes its probe and asked the SC to restrain ED from issuing summons.

In his fresh writ petition, Karti Chidambaram has challenged the summons on the ground that the ED has no jurisdiction to issue such notices based on the FIR lodged by the CBI.

The official said Karti Chidambaram and Indrani Mukerjea were brought face-to-face and questioned by the CBI team for about four hours.

Karti was arrested by CBI after the confessional statement of Mukerjea in the case on February 28.

Karti may be brought face-to-face with former media barons Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, both accused in the Sheena Bora murder case and currently lodged in a Mumbai jail.

The former Law Minister said Karti Chidambaram had been interrogated for several hours at different times during the last few months and all documents considered necessary were with the prosecuting agency.

Karti's mother Nalini Chidambaram, who is also a senior advocate, was seen sitting with him in the court. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi is leading the team of advocates for Karti.

Staging a protest at Valluvar Kottam in the city, around 200 Congress leaders raised slogans against the BJP, calling Karti’s arrest a “political witch-hunt”. The protesters held posters, accusing the BJP of trying to “divert attention from its scams”.