india

Updated: Oct 31, 2019 13:08 IST

The Delhi High Court on Thursday ordered the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Director to set up a board of doctors to examine if former Union minister P Chidambaram should be shifted to a sterile environment in the hospital.

The high court has set a Friday deadline for the panel, which would also include Hyderabad-based gastroenterologist Nageshwar Rao, news agency Press Trust of India said. Justice Suresh Kait said the board will sit today to discuss Chidambaram’s medical condition and the report be placed before the court which will hear the matter on Friday.

Thursday’s court order came in response to a request by the former minister who had asked to be released on interim bail for a few days on medical grounds. The Congress leader told the court that his doctor had advised him “immediate medical attention in a sterile environment including a change of diet to a bland and sterile one”.

Chidambaram, 74, has been in detention for 70 days in two cases linked to alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board’s decision allowing INX Media to receive foreign direct investment in excess of the approved amount.

The CBI first arrested Chidambaram on August 21 in this case. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate two weeks back, days before the Supreme Court granted him bail in the CBI case.

Chidambaram later filed a petition in the high court for regular bail in the second case being investigated by the ED as well.

The former finance minister was remanded in judicial custody by Special CBI Judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar who turned down the Enforcement Directorate’s request to question Chidambaram for one more day.

Special judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar observed that “sufficient time has been given for the custodial interrogation” of Chidambaram. The court had also noted that Chidambaram had been in the custody of the ED since October 17 but had not been confronted with any witnesses.