P Chidambaram, with his son Karti Chidambaram, leaves after meeting party President Sonia Gandhi at her reside... Read More

NEW DELHI: Released on bail from judicial custody in Tihar Jail after 106 days, former minister P Chidambaram drove straight to Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s 10, Janpath residence before returning home on Wednesday evening.

Dressed in his trademark long-sleeved white shirt and dhoti, the former finance minister emerged smiling after his brief meeting with the Congress president. “I am happy that the Supreme Court has passed an order granting bail and I am happy that I have stepped out and am breathing the air of freedom after 106 days,” he said.

Just after emerging from Tihar, he had said that despite 106 days of “pre-trial incarceration”, the agencies had not framed “a single charge against me”. Chidambaram also said he would address a press conference at the Congress headquarters on Thursday afternoon. Earlier in the day, his son Karti said Chidambaram would attend Parliament on Thursday.

The former FM reached his Jor Bagh residence around 9.20 pm where his wife Nalini had arrived from Chennai earlier in the day. Awaiting his return, Chidambaram’s staff told TOI they were happy to hear about his release and said the Congress leader would be served a traditional south Indian preparation of chicken and rice for dinner.

The media melee outside the Chidambaram residence , however, appeared to have upset some neighbours. An architect who lives next door said she was “unhappy” with the neighbourhood being “disturbed” by the goings-on of the last few months.

A large number of Congress workers had reached Tihar Jail to give Chidambaram a hero’s welcome and a few also reached his house. Among those who waited to greet Chidambaram were Tiruvallur MP K Jayakumar and Congress spokesperson Shama Mohammed. A Chidambaram supporter, who called himself ‘Guitar Uncle’ Sushil Ahuja, strummed a guitar and sang “Nyay do” and said he was singing against BJP’s vendetta politics and Chidambaram’s incarceration.

Congress functionaries, who had taken turns to visit Chidambaram while he was in jail, accused the government of hatching a “big conspiracy” against the former FM and said walls were scaled to arrest him as if it was the house of “Osama bin Laden’s relative” and not of a former Union minister. Congress’s leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury alleged the government had hatched a “big conspiracy” against the former minister as he had been its sharp critic.

