INDIA’s Ex- Home & Finance Minister Chidambaram Arrested In INX Media Corruption Case Amidst Congress Alleging It Is a Political Vendetta By Modi Sarkar
FORMER Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who was arrested by the CBI Wednesday night from his posh South Delhi residence in connection with INX media corruption case after he had allegedly ignored CBI’s notice to appear before it, was being quizzed by the probe agency. After the Delhi High Court declared him prima facie the kingpin in the scam and rejected his plea for anticipatory bail on Tuesday, teams of Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate camped at his residence to take him into custody for questing related to case. But he was not traceable and the CBI had put notices on his house’s wall. He addressed a presser at the AICC headquarters located at 24 Akbar Road in the presence of his legal advisers close to 27 hours later of the Delhi High Court Order and after the Supreme Court of India on Wednesday rejecting his appeal for urgently hearing his plea against the High Court’s Order. During this period, his phone remained switched off. He told media persons without taking any question from them in a scripted statement that he was not running away from law .Nor was he an accused in the case. No chargesheet was filed against him.He was busy consulting his lawyers throughout Tuesday .Lawyer turned politician , Chidambaram, 73, from Tamil Nadu, was Home and Finance Minister in the UPA governments from 2004 to 2014. His son Karti Chidambaram, 47, who won the 2019 Lok Sabha poll from Shivaganga, his father’s bastion, is co-accused in the case.CBI claims he has been arrested on the basis of a warrant issued by a competent court. After his arrest, doctors from the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital conducted medical examination on him at the CBI headquarters, ANI reports. Chidambaram has been kept in the suit No. 5 of the CBI Guest House on the ground floor of the agency headquarters, they said. He will be produced before a special CBI court before expiry of the mandatory 24 hours after the arrest of any person. After his arrest, doctors from the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital conducted his medical examination at the CBI headquarters, ANI says. Chidambaram has been kept in the suit No. 5 of the CBI Guest House on the ground floor of the agency headquarters, they said.
Karti Chidambaram lands in Delhi and speaking to reporters says, “This is completely a politically motivated witch-hunt.” He adds that his father is a “vehement critic” of the government and has hence been silenced. He questioned as to why the case dated back to 2008 was filed in 2017.AICC Spokesperson Randeep Singh Surejwala said there was no case against the former Union Minister. The ruling BJP was harassing its political opponents who were critical of the NDA government’s policy.(edited by Pranab Kumar Chakravarty with inputs from varied sources).