CBI runs out of questions for Chidambaram, will still host him for 2 days

Former finance minister P Chidambaram will continue to remain in custody of the CBI till September 5, the Supreme Court ordered after a brief hearing on Tuesday. The CBI custody would help keep 73-year-old Chidambaram out of Tihar jail despite the Centre’s second most-senior law officer Tushar Mehta telling the court that the investigating agency had no more questions for him.

“We don’t want custody anymore… Let the law take its own course,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a two-judge bench led by Justice R Banumathi on Tuesday on Chidambaram’s petition against a lower court order on CBI remand.

“Just because one man doesn’t want to be placed in judicial custody, why should this court pass any order?” Mehta said, arguing that the Supreme Court should not regulate what should happen in a trial court.

Justice Banumathi, however, gave Chidambaram the reprieve that his legal team had been requesting after Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Singhvi assured the bench that they will not press the bail application before the trial court. The two senior lawyers said they will wait till September 5.

Watch | CBI & ED heat on Chidambaram: All there is to know about the INX media case 

Chidambaram had rushed to the Supreme Court last month after the high court lifted the shield against his arrest in two INX Media cases being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate. The CBI was the first one to move in, landing at his Delhi house late on August 21 evening and taking him away.

The former home and finance minister has been in CBI custody since then. The Enforcement Directorate was waiting to arrest him next but has had to hold off. The top court will deliver its verdict on Chidambaram’s request for pre-arrest bail in the ED case on Thursday.

Chidambaram’s legal team had been prepping for the possibility that the CBI does not seek the veteran Congress leader’s custody any more. In such a case, the former home minister would ordinarily have to be sent to Tihar jail. It is an eventuality that Chidambaram’s team has been anxiously trying to avoid since yesterday.

Also read | Cornered, says Indrani Mukerjea whose testimony led to Chidambaram arrest

Yesterday, Chidambaram’s team told the Supreme Court to either order the ex-minister’s house arrest or let him continue in CBI custody. They argued that once Chidambaram was sent to judicial custody, their petition against his CBI remand also would become infructuous, quite the same way his initial request for pre-arrest bail became pointless once he was arrested by the CBI in the INX Media case.

The INX Media case relates to alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance given to the media group for receiving foreign investment to the tune of ₹305 crore in 2007, when Chidambaram was finance minister. CBI registered a first information report on May 15, 2017, alleging irregularities in the manner the clearance had been awarded.