NEW DELHI: In a relief to former finance minister P Chidambaram , the Supreme Court on Friday granted him interim protection in the INX Media case registered by the Enforcement Directorate till August 26, which means he cannot be taken into custody by the agency without the apex court’s permission.

The Congress leader, who was sent to CBI custody by a trial court on Thursday, will however remain with the investigating agency till Monday when the lower court as well as the apex court will hear the case. As he is already remanded in custody, the court did not hear his plea for bail in the CBI case and took up only the ED matter.

The SC said it would hear both petitions, as well as the one challenging the trial court order for CBI custody, on August 26. The relief came after Chidambaram suffered three setbacks starting on Tuesday when the Delhi high court turned down his demand for bail and the SC declined to hear his bail plea. On Thursday, a special court sent him to CBI custody.

On Friday, Chidambaram’s counsel Kapil Sibal objected to the former finance minister’s appeal against the Delhi HC verdict not being listed for hearing in the SC despite being filed on time, and said his client’s fundamental right of access to justice had been frustrated. This, he said, resulted in the trial court remanding him to CBI custody. He then confined his arguments to the ED case, contending the HC judge had “blindly relied” on notes placed by investigating agencies after the arguments were concluded and the order was passed on that basis.

Sibal said Chidambaram was not given an opportunity to contest the veracity of the notes. Targeting the HC judge for relying on “unverified” notes, he said the verdict contained the same language and adjectives used in the notes and the judge just did “copy-paste work” in passing the order.

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta strongly objected to Sibal’s allegations against the judge and told the bench that the notes were placed before the HC on the basis of the probe report.

Mehta argued that the agencies had collected substantial evidence, including email exchanges, against Chidambaram and his custodial interrogation by the ED was needed to track the money trail . He said the former minister was involved in “money laundering of monumental proportion” as multiple shell companies were created in India and abroad. He informed the bench that agencies had unearthed at least 10 properties and 17 bank accounts in foreign countries and also properties in the name of his granddaughter.

Emphasising the need for Chidambaram’s custodial interrogation by the ED, Mehta said, “There are certain individuals with high mental faculty and they will not divulge anything if they are under the protection of anticipatory bail.” He told the bench there was no need to pass any interim order as the ED could not arrest him till Monday as he was in CBI custody. He also said the bench should go through the probe reports before passing any order.

But Sibal and A M Singhvi strongly objected and urged the court not to rely on an unverified report. The court then passed the order granting interim protection to Chidambaram till the next date of hearing and noted he was given protection by the Delhi HC for 14 months before his anticipatory bail plea was rejected. The court posted all the cases to Monday for further hearing.

