india

Updated: Jun 18, 2020 15:54 IST

Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s urgent petition to seek pre-arrest bail has been listed for a hearing by the Supreme Court two days later, on Friday. The court’s decision comes after Chidambaram’s legal team led by Congress leader Kapil Sibal made several attempts through the day for an immediate hearing by the top court.

Sibal mentioned the petition twice before Justice NV Ramana earlier in the day but was told to approach Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on both occasions. The Chief Justice didn’t issue any orders till late evening, reportedly because there were some formalities to be completed.

The Delhi high court had yesterday opened the doors for his arrest by the two investigating agencies when Justice Sunil Gaur denied interim protection from arrest in a case of suspected irregularities related to foreign investment received by INX Media group when he was finance minister in 2007.

Watch | Chidambaram faces heat: All there is to know about the INX media case

That gives the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate 24 hours more to trace Chidambaram, who was the finance minister in the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government. Chidambaram was appointed home minister after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and oversaw the overhaul of the security establishment over the next 44 months. He returned to the finance ministry after Pranab Mukherjee was elevated as President in 2012.

The Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate have been trying to touch base with him since last evening but have been unable to. Finally, according to his legal team, a CBI team pasted a notice outside his house past midnight, asking him to present himself within two hours. Later this morning, the ED also followed up on its search with a lookout circular issued.

Chidambaram has received wide support from his party. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and sister Priyanka tweeted their attacks on the government for targeting the senior politician.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accused the government of “shamefully” hunting down the former home and finance minister while Rahul Gandhi targeted the government for the “disgraceful misuse of power” and using “the ED, CBI & sections of a spineless media to character assassinate Mr Chidambaram”.

The case against Chidambaram is centered around 2007 approvals to INX Media by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to receive overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore.

The CBI, which had registered a case in May 2017, alleged Indrani Mukerjea and her husband Peter Mukherjea, who co-founded INX Media, paid bribes to P Chidambaram’s son Karti to get foreign investment approvals and evade punitive measures for not having necessary approvals from FIPB earlier. The Enforcement Directorate got into the picture a year later.

In 2018, Indrani Mukerjea told CBI that a $1 million deal was struck between Karti Chidambaram and the Mukerjeas to secure the FIPB approval. Last month, a Delhi court allowed Indrani Mukerjea, who is a prime accused in the murder of her daughter Sheena Bora, to turn approver in the INX case.