Why PC Ended Up In Tihar

Delhi court sends him to judicial custody till Sept 19 in INX Media case as ED bowls googly, declines his surrender offer

- Aneesha Mathur

On Thursday, Asia’s biggest prison complex got a highly unusual inmate - India’s former Home and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.

The senior Congress leader tried his best to avoid the further embarrassment of being lodged in Tihar by offering his custody to the Enforcement Directorate (ED). But the agency won’t take the offer! The CBI’s special court then sent him to 14 days of judicial custody, till September 19.

The 73-year-old’s 15-day CBI custody, ordered in five spells, which started after his arrest from his Jor Bagh residence in South Delhi on August 21, ended on Thursday.

Both agencies are probing the INX Media case in which he is accused of facilitating foreign investment for the company when he was the Finance Minister. His son, Karti Chidambaram, is accused of receiving kickbacks for the approval. He is out on bail. CBI registered an FIR on May 15, 2017. Thereafter, ED lodged a money laundering case.

On Thursday, the court allowed Chidambaram to carry his medicines and directed that he be kept in a separate cell in Tihar as he was a protected under Z-security.