INX Media case: Supreme Court denies protection to Chidambaram from ED arrest
New Delhi: In another setback for the former Union Finance and Home Minister, the Supreme Court on Thursday denied a protection to P Chidambaram from arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the INX Media case, media reports said.
The ED is probing the money laundering angle in the case.
The top court has said it does not want to give an anticipatory bail as it may interfere with the probe.
But Chidambaram can move a regular bail plea before the trial court, said the topmost level of judiciary.
The former Finance Minister is already in the custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which is probing the INX Media case.
Chidambaram, a senior Congress leader, was arrested last month.
What is the case?
The central probe agency had registered the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002) case on the basis of a CBI FIR and had alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs. 305 crore in 2007, when P Chidambaram was the Finance Minister.
The CBI had filed the FIR on May 15, 2017 alleging irregularities in FIPB clearance to INX Media.
The money laundering case was filed the same month by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). ED had also allegedly found links of INX Media with a company associated with Chidambaram’s son Karti Chidambaram. The documents allegedly led to unravelling of payments made to Karti’s company by INX Media when the FIPB approval was granted.
INX Media Pvt Ltd. was owned by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, now in jail after being accused in the Sheena Bora murder case.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.