ED wants to grill Chidambaram
New Delhi, Oct. 31: The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday opposed in a Delhi court the anticipatory bail plea of former Union minister and Congress leader P. Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis money laundering case and sought his custodial interrogation.
ED, which filed its response to the anticipatory bail plea of Chidambaram, said that he has remained evasive and was not cooperating in the probe and therefore grant of anticipatory bail at this stage would be highly detrimental to the investigation.
“From the conduct of the petitioner, which gets amply demonstrated from the records available, the investigating agency has reached a bonafide conclusion that in the absence of custodial interrogation it will not be possible to reach the truth of the allegations as the petitioner has chosen to be evasive and noncooperative,” the agency said in reply opposing the anticipatory bail plea.
It said Chidambaram, being a senior advocate practising in the Supreme Court, a Rajya Sabha MP and former union minister, “is a highly influential and well connected individual. Therefore, there is a serious apprehension of the applicant influencing witnesses or tampering with evidence pertaining to the present case.”
The agency said that the investigation pertaining to FIPB approval fraudulently granted by Chidambaram has got several dimensions having wide ramifications for which investigation has been concluded to some extent and with regard to certain issues was still going on.