A Delhi court on Tuesday allowed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to interrogate and arrest former Union minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram in connection with the INX Media money laundering case.
The agency had sought permission from a Delhi court to arrest Chidambaram and interrogate him in custody.
The court gave an option to ED to either interrogate Chidambaram for half an hour at the court premises or sending him to Tihar jail for now and arresting him from there.
The agency opted for the second option. Chidambaram will be arrested Wednesday morning and he will be produced in court around 4 PM when the agency applies for his custody.
Chidambaram, who was arrested by the CBI in the INX Media case on 21 August, has spent 40 days in Tihar Jail. His remand is slated to end on October 17.
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Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the ED, said he wanted to interrogate him at the court premises, but advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing on behalf of Chidambaram, objected to the same citing dignity of the proceedings.
Mehta, in the previous hearing, had said that Chidambaram’s custodial interrogation is required as the agency wants to seek information related to a shell company abroad and his 17 bank accounts. Sibal, however, opposed the agency’s application.
The case pertains to an FIR registered by the CBI for alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance given to INX Media to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 by Chidambaram when he was the Finance Minister.
(With ANI inputs)