DOUBLE RELIEF TO CHIDU
Former union minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram secured double relief from arrest, with Delhi High Court on Thursday granting him interim protection till July 3 in the INX media case and asking the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to reply to his anticipatory bail application.
He had already secured protection from a city court on Wednesday till June 5 from arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in the AircelMaxis telecom deal. Both the cases are of alleged corruption by him during his tenure as the finance minister in the first Manmohan Singh government.
The CBI had summoned Chidambaram on Thursday to join the INX Media investigation, but he didn't turn up and instead his lawyer Arun Natarajan filed an application that he would not be able to appear when the Court is proceeding in th case.
The single bench Judge Justice A K Pathak, however, directed him to join investigation whenever required. The CBI sources said a fresh notice will be sent to him in the light of the High Court order.
The Court directed the CBI not to take any coercive action against Chidambaram till July 3, the next date of hearing and respond to his anticipatory bail application. He had moved the High Court on Wednesday on getting the CBI notice for questioning on Thursday.
The CBI on May 15 last year filed an FIR in the case accusing Chidambaram, his son Karti and others for their involvement in irregularities committed in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) giving INX Media the clearancein 2007 to receive Rs 305 crore in foreign investment.
The CBI had on February 28 arrested Karti in the case accusing him of taking money to facilitate the foreign investment from FIPB under his father. The agency initially alleged that Karti had received Rs 10 lakh as bribe for facilitating the FIPB clearance, but the figure was, however, revised later to about $1 million or Rs 6.5 crore at the current exchange rate. Both CBI and the Enforcement Directorate are probing the case. Other accused in the case are INX directors Indrani and her husband Peter Mukerjea.