NCLT Chennai Defreezes Karti Chidambaram's Wife's Bank Accounts After SFIO Admits PAN Error

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) at Chennai on Friday ordered the defreezing of all bank accounts belonging to Dr Srinidhi Karti Chidambaram after the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) confirmed through its verification exercise that her accounts had been frozen because of an error.

A coram of Judicial Member Jyoti Kumar Tripathi and Technical Member Ravichandran Ramasamy also clarified that all bank accounts and movable and immovable assets linked to the PAN of former MP Karti P Chidambaram will continue to remain frozen until further orders.

"We wish to make it clear that attachment and freezing of accounts as well as movable and immobavke assets if any of pan.. In the name of Krati Chidambaram will continue to be frozen and attached till further orders.", the bench said said.

SFIO informed the tribunal that it had no objection to the defreezing of Srinidhi's accounts and submitted that the attachment occurred because the agency mistakenly entered her PAN number instead of Karti's when preparing the list of accounts to be frozen.

The attachment originated from an ex parte order obtained by SFIO on 4 November in its disgorgement proceedings concerning Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited, also known as ASCPL. SFIO has alleged that ASCPL and related companies received unlawful gains of about 48 crore rupees arising from investigations ordered by the central government in 2G spectrum and Aircel Maxis cases in 2017.

Acting on the November 4 order, SFIO froze the bank accounts of ASCPL and accounts linked to Karti's PAN. Due to the incorrect PAN entry, Srinidhi's accounts, including a joint account held with her 85 year old mother in law, were also frozen even though she was not named in the proceedings and no material had been placed on record to link her or her companies to ASCPL.

At the hearing on December 9, SFIO conceded that freezing Srinidhi's accounts was an 'inadvertent' mistake. The tribunal questioned why the agency had not returned to correct the error at once, especially since SFIO had used Karti's correct PAN on 12 November when freezing his own accounts.

The bench noted that SFIO had still not complied with its direction issued on 3 December to verify the PAN linked accounts by 9 December and said it expected the agency to complete the correction without delay. The bench stated during that hearing that the matter was serious and urged SFIO to put its resources together to complete the verification immediately.

Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Srinidhi, argued that the attachment was based solely on the incorrect PAN entry based on Karti's deposition during investigation. He submitted that SFIO had not complied with any of the tribunal's earlier directions and had taken no steps to issue correct instructions to banks. He pointed out that SFIO had attached Chess Management Services Private Limited using Karti's correct PAN, which showed that the agency had access to the correct records.

Following SFIO's verification exercise, the tribunal on Friday directed that all accounts linked to Srinidhi's PAN be defrozen. The tribunal clarified that all bank accounts and assets in the name of Karti P Chidambaram will remain under attachment until further orders. The matter will be heard next week when Karti's challenge to the attachment comes up.

Case Title: Union of India through Serious Fraud Investigation Office vs Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited (ASCPL) & 1 Another

Case Number: CP/110(CHE)2025