Bail to Chidu, but he can’t walk free

Former finance minister P Chidambaram, who spent 2 months in custody of enforcement agencies and jail, was on Tuesday granted bail in the INX media corruption case filed by the CBI but he can't walk free as he is currently under the ED's custody in a related money laundering matter.

Chidambaram, 74, was arrested by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials from his Jor Bagh home here in a late night drama on August 21. A city court on October 18 remanded the Congress veteran to the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) custody till Thursday after multiple spells of CBI and judicial remand.

Setting aside the Delhi High Court's September 30 verdict denying bail to Chidambaram, the apex court said he is neither a "flight risk" nor there is a possibility of "his abscondence from the trial". Chidambaram had moved the apex court challenging the high court verdict.

The court, however, made it clear its order will not have any bearing in any other proceedings.

The statement made by the CBI that Chidambaram has influenced witnesses and there was a likelihood of his further influencing them cannot be the ground to deny bail to him when there was "no such whisper" in six remand applications filed by the agency before the trial court, it said.

Rejecting the CBI contentions that Chidambaram tried to influence two material witnesses in the case, a bench headed by Justice R Banumathi said no details are available as to ‘when, where and how those witnesses were approached’