CHIDAMBARAM MOVES HC FOR BAIL IN ED CASE

NEWDELHI: Former Union minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday moved the Delhi high court seeking bail in connection with the INX Media case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate. The Supreme Court granted him bail a day earlier in a related case being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The CBI first arrested Chidambaram on August 21 in the 2017 case relating 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 a decade earlier. The ED later registered a money laundering case on the basis of its probe in the CBI case. On October 16, the ED arrested Chidambaram in connection with the money laundering offence and he was remanded in custody till October 24.

In his plea, Chidambaram said he is innocent and has been wrongly implicated in the case. He contended that he is neither a flight risk nor would he run away from the trial. “…the petitioner is neither named as an accused nor as a suspect in the FIR.

There is no allegation against the petitioner in the body of the ECIR [Enforcement Case Information Report]. In any event, no offence is made out against the petitioner even from a reading of the captioned ECIR,’’ the plea said. “It is submitted that the petitioner has no connection with the companies... alleged to be involved in the alleged offence and has not received any undue pecuniary advantage from any person.”

“It is submitted that with the onset of cold weather and the incidents of dengue etc, the petitioner’s health is likely to become more vulnerable,” the plea said.

The petition also said the ED did not interrogate him even once when he was in judicial custody.