NEW DELHI: In his dramatic appearance at the Congress headquarters to address a presser on Wednesday evening, former Union finance minister P Chidambaram sought to build his defence around the fact that the CBI FIR in the INX Media case doesn’t name him and yet he is being accused of economic offences.But while dismissing his pre-arrest bail plea, the Delhi high court had termed this very detail “inconsequential” and pointed out that based on evidence presented by CBI and ED, Chidambaram was the “kingpin, that is the key conspirator” in a “classic case of money laundering”.In his order, made available on Wednesday, Justice Sunil Gaur counters the argument made by the senior Congress leader of not being named an accused in the case by noting that “the gravity of offence committed by petitioner is quite evident from case diaries etc. produced by the investigating agencies”.The judge goes on to say that Chidambaram “cannot claim parity with co-accused who are on bail as it cannot be forgotten that petitioner was the finance minister at the relevant time and he had given FDI clearances to INX Media Group for receiving overseas funds to the tune of 305 crores”.According to the order, the court “finds that not naming of petitioner in FIR is inconsequential as petitioner has been projected to be the main accused on whose dictates the offence of this magnitude could be committed”.Justice Gaur’s order also notes that “offenders must be exposed, no matter what their status is”. It calls for Parliament to give more teeth to the law to prevent economic offenders from getting pre-arrest bail.“Time has come to recommend to the Parliament to suitably amend the law to restrict the provisions of pre-arrest bail and make it inapplicable to economic offenders of high-profile cases like the instant one. It is (the) need of the hour. The law must come down upon economic offenders with a heavy hand.”The order quotes the Supreme Court as saying that the approach to be followed while dealing with bail pleas in cases involving criminal conspiracy to commit economic offences of a large magnitude ought to be strict as fraudulent transactions affect the economic system to the country’s detriment. “Economic crimes of such mammoth scale are craftily planned and executed. Thus, grant of bail in cases like instant one will send a wrong message to the society,” it states.Referring to the SC’s observations in the money laundering case against T&T Law founder Rohit Tandon, the order iterates that “white collar crimes/economic offenders have deep-rooted conspiracies involving huge amount of public funds and this should be viewed seriously and such offences ought to be considered as grave offences”.Justice Gaur’s order adds: “It is often seen that when economic offenders are on pre-arrest bail, then the probe conducted is at a superficial level, like in the instant case. This not only weakens mega scam cases but it actually stiffs the prosecution. This court cannot permit the prosecution in this sensitive case to end up in smoke like it has happened in some other high-profile cases. Tendering of chargesheet after obtaining sanction for prosecution of petitioner cannot dilute the gravity of the offence in question.”