Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti got interim protection from Delhi High Court from arrest by Enforcement Directorate till March 20, but the trial court extended his CBI custody by three more days in the INX Media bribery case.

In trial court, Karti’s lawyer Abhishek Singhvi on Friday accused the CBI of harassing his client and playing all sort of tricks to increase the duration of his custody. He said powerful light was turned on him at night in the lock up and he was woken up for interrogation at odd hours. Singhvi also alleged that the CBI purposefully did not filed reply to the bail petition so that he could be kept in custody.

Singhvi said Karti’s blood pressure (BP) levels are fluctuating between 140 and 190 and he is in bad shape.

Countering Singhvi, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta said Karti may be given a room but lights can’t be switched off due to security reasons. Chidambaram and wife Nalini was present during the entire proceedings in the court and judge allowed them 15 minutes of interaction with their son.

During the hearing, Mehta, said Karti’s custodial interrogation was necessary as “new incriminating materials” have been found against him. He said a CD has been recovered from the office of Advantage Strategies Pvt Ltd in Chennai in connection with the case. He said the CD has been sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) for examination.

Earlier the trial court extended the judicial custody of Karti’s Chartered Accountant Bhaskar Raman for 14 days. Karti told Bhaskar to “stay strong” in Tamil, while he was being taken out of court by ED officials.

The court allowed the CBI to confront Karti with his CA Bhaskar .

Meanwhile in the morning Karti got a breather in a money laundering case, with the Delhi High Court restraining the ED from arresting him till March 20. A Bench of Justices S Muralidhar and IS Mehta, which heard the matter in a packed courtroom for close to three hours, also made it clear that if the special court granted Karti bail in the corruption case registered by the CBI against him, the ED will not arrest him till the next hearing by the HC.

“If the CBI court grants bail to the petitioner in the CBI case, no coercive steps shall be exercised against the petitioner by the ED under section 19 (Power to arrest) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA),” the Bench said.

Also, it issued notice and sought response of the ED and the Centre on Karti’s plea seeking quashing of summons and challenging the proceedings in the money laundering case. It impleaded the Centre as a necessary party in the case as in the original plea Karti had only made ED a party.

The Bench said if the trial court decides to grant bail to Karti in the CBI case, it shall impose conditions such as the accused shall appear before the ED as and when called by the investigating officer and cooperate in the probe. He shall also be directed not to leave the country and surrender his passport, it said.

The ASG Tushar Mehta said the matter was at a crucial stage of probe, and should not be granted any interim relief as there was “cogent, substantial, reliable and unimpeachable material” against him.