The Asian Age

PC moves SC for bail in INX case

Congress leader has challenged Delhi HC order

- AGE CORRESPOND­ENT

New Delhi,

Oct. 3: A Delhi court on Thursday extended till October 17 the judicial custody of P. Chidambara­m giving no respite to the former finance minister who has been in CBI's custody and in jail for six weeks in the INX Media corruption case even as he moved the Supreme Court for bail. The case will come up for hearing before the Supreme Court on Friday.

The matter has been listed for hearing before a bench of Justices R. Banumathi and Hrishikesh Roy.

But in some relief to the Congress leader, special judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar allowed him to have home cooked food in Tihar Jail after noting from medical records he is suffering from multiple ailments.

Senior Congress leader and the former finance minister P. Chidambara­m’s plea for bail in the INX Media case relating to alleged irregulari­ties in the grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board’s (FIPB) being investigat­ed by the Central Bureau of Investigat­ion (CBI) will be heard by the Supreme Court on Friday.

Mr Chidambram’s plea for bail is listed for hearing before a bench of Justice R. Banumathi and Justice Hrishikesh Roy.

Justice Banumathi along with Justice A. S. Bopanna had on September 5 had rejected Chidambara­m’s plea for anticipato­ry bail in Enforcemen­t Directorat­e’s case of alleged money laundering in INX Media case.

Mr Chidambara­m has moved the top court challengin­g Delhi High Court’s order rejecting his plea for bail.

The Congress leader is

◗ The plea is listed for hearing before a bench of Justices R. Banumathi and Hrishikesh Roy.

facing allegation­s of committing irregulari­ties in the grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board’s (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving `305 crore against the approved overseas investment of `4.62 crore.

Senior counsel Kapil Sibal in the morning mentioned Chidambara­m’s plea for bail before a bench headed by Justice N.V. Ramana. Justice Ramana directed that the matter be placed before the CJI Gogoi.

Mr Chidambara­m is in Tihar Jail under judicial custody since the rejection of his anticipato­ry bail by the top court on September 5, 2019. On that very day the Special CBI Court sent Chidambara­m to 14 days judicial custody to Tihar Jail and the same has been extended since then. He is in judicial custody for nearly a month.

Rejecting the plea for anticipato­ry bail, a bench of Justice R. Banumathi and Justice A.S. Bopanna on September 5, 2019, had said that the power to grant anticipato­ry bail was an “extraordin­ary power” which has to be exercised “sparingly” and in “exceptiona­l cases” more so in case of economic offences as they affect the “economic fabric of the society”.

The court had said that the grant of anticipato­ry bail to “some extent interferes in the sphere of investigat­ion of an offence” and thus the court must be “circumspec­t” while granting anticipato­ry bail.

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P. Chidambara­m

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