NEW DELHI: The storm clouds over former finance minister P Chidambaram deepened on Tuesday as he rushed to the Supreme Court seeking anticipatory bail — after the Delhi high court ended his interim bail in two corruption cases — only to be told that his plea should be placed before the most senior bench headed by an SC judge on Wednesday.

The senior Congress leader sought protection from arrest within an hour of the Delhi HC denying him anticipatory bail in decade-old cases being investigated by the CBI and ED relating to alleged irregularities in FIPB clearance for the Rs 3,500-crore Aircel-Maxis deal and the Rs 305-crore FDI in INX Media when he headed the finance ministry.

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Justice Sunil Gaur made some pointed observations while ending Chidambaram’s anticipatory bail, holding him to be “prima facie the kingpin” in the INX Media bribery case and noted that his being an MP was not enough reason to grant pre-arrest bail. This would send a wrong message to society, the court said, adding it could not risk a sensitive case going up in smoke like other high-profile cases.

Chidambaram has denied any wrongdoing, saying he was being targeted by the BJP-led government for political reasons. The HC, however, rejected the charge. “It is preposterous to say the prosecution of Chidambaram is baseless, politically motivated and an act of vendetta. It is a classic case of money laundering ,” Justice Gaur said.

With the court withdrawing the umbrella of protection, a team of the CBI reached the former finance minister’s Jor Bagh residence but could not find him.

Justice Gaur delivered two blows to Chidambaram in quick succession. First, he cancelled the interim bail given to him. Second, just an hour later, Justice Gaur rejected Chidambaram’s application seeking a week-long stay on operation of the bail cancellation order so that he could move the SC for interim relief.

The HC had protected Chidambaram from arrest since July last year by giving him interim bail. It had reserved its verdict on the CBI’s plea seeking cancellation of bail on January 25.

The sword of arrest hangs over Chidambaram till Wednesday morning as the probe agencies are free to take him in custody in the absence of any protection from arrest at present. However, it is possible that they may cover themselves against the risk of suffering a setback in the SC on Wednesday morning.

This makes Chidambaram the most senior Congress leader to face the prospect of imminent arrest.

The senior Congress leader’s role, when he was finance minister in UPA-1, came under the scanner of various investigating agencies in the Aircel-Maxis deal and the INX Media case, both of which had got clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board .

But when the HC said it did not have the power to review its own verdict of denying anticipatory bail by staying its operation, Chidambaram’s counsel Kapil Sibal rushed to the SC. But by then, the CJI-led Constitution bench hearing the Ayodhya matter had already risen.

Armed with an application seeking protection from arrest, Sibal paced up to the joint registrar seeking an urgent hearing. The court official took the matter to the CJI in his chamber. The CJI instructed that Chidambaram’s application, along with the special leave petition challenging the HC verdict, could be mentioned by the counsel before the most senior SC judge-led bench available on Wednesday.

Since the number two in the SC, Justice S A Bobde, is part of the Constitution bench hearing the Ayodhya case, the mentioning of Chidambaram’s plea would have to be made before a bench headed by Justice N V Ramana. The Justice Ramana-led bench will decide the merits of Chidambaram’s plea seeking protection from arrest till the appeal gets heard.

The uncertainty over his bail plea was underlined by the CBI and ED teams reaching Chidambaram’s residence on Tuesday evening seeking the leader, who was, however, unavailable. There were several TV teams outside the residence as the former minister remained out of sight, presumably till the SC proceedings on Wednesday.

In the INX Media case, the CBI registered an FIR on May 15, 2017 alleging irregularities in the FIPB clearance granted to the media group for receiving overseas funds of Rs 305 crore in 2007 during Chidambaram’s tenure as finance minister. In 2018, the ED had lodged a money laundering case.

Chidambaram’s petition in the SC said the HC fell in error by not noticing the fact that the former finance minister had religiously appeared before investigating agencies as and when summons were issued and had fully cooperated with the probe. He said investigation into the cases were a fallout of political vendetta against him and his family by the present regime.



In Video: INX Media case: Former Union finance minister P Chidambaram moves SC after bail plea rejected by Delhi High Court