Supreme Court issues notice to Enforcement Directorate P Chidambaram’s bail plea in INX Media case.

Source – hindustantimes.com

The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to Enforcement Directorate (ED) on former finance minister P Chidambaram’s bail petition.

The bench of the court headed by Justice R Banumathi asked the probe agency to file a fresh affidavit.The case will be next heard on November 26. The ED was represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who told the court that a response will be filed by November 25.

Chidambaram had approached the top court on Monday after the Delhi high court denied him bail last week.

In his plea before a bench led by Chief Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde on Tuesday, senior lawyer Kapil Sibal had requested the court hear Chidambaram’s plea early citing that he has been in jail for 90 days.

The CJI had told Sibal that the matter will be heard on Wednesday or Thursday.

On August 21, the senior Congress leader was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the INX Media case. Chidambaram did get bail in the CBI case, but was arrested by the ED way before that in a related money laundering case.

The Delhi high court had denied Chidambara’s bail petition last week and observed that a wrong message will go to the public.

The judge had said that the allegations against the 74-year-old are serious and he is alleged to have played a key role in the money laundering case.

The INX Media case relates to alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance provided to INX Media for receiving Rs 305 crore overseas funds in 2007. Chidambaram was the finance minister of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government during that period.

The CBI had registered a first information report (FIR) on May 15, 2017. Later, the ED registered a money laundering case against Chidambaram in a related case.