New Delhi: Karti, an accused in the INX Media and Aircel-Maxis cases and son of former Union home and finance minister P Chidambaram, has been allowed by the Supreme Court to travel abroad. The permission was granted despite the response of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to Karti's application where the agency said, through an affidavit, the accused had not been cooperating in the process of probe and that he had already been overseas for 51 days in the last six months, misusing his freedom of movement.

However, the apex court added that if Karti Chidambaram continued to not cooperate in the investigation against his alleged wrongdoings, things could get really difficult for him.

Karti is supposed to report to the ED on March 5, 6 and 12 as per the Supreme Court order even as he has sought permission to visit the UK, Spain, germany and France in the coming months.

During the previous hearings, CJI Ranjan Gogoi had said that the Supreme Court had other important work and that it could not get bogged down by this case. Since the Aircel-Maxis case is not going to settle soon, Karti spending some time abroad was not an issue.

Karti is accused of receiving Rs 305 crore illegally from foreign sources while handling INX Media. This had happened when P Chidambaram was the finance minister, thereby making the father a co-accused in the case for facilitating the fund transfer from overseas sources by giving his son's firm the FIPB (Foreign Investment Promotion Board) clearance.

In a related development, the Patiala House court had stayed the arrest of the father-son duo until February 1. In the charge sheet filed by the ED, the former finance minister is the first out of the nine accused. The main allegation against him is misuse of his office and post.