Ex-FM appears at Cong HQ out of nowhere to address Press conference, CBI-ED sleuths scale walls to enter his house

The hide and seek between former Union Minister P Chidambaram and the CBI ended after his dramatic arrest on Wednesday night. The CBI arrested Chidambaram from his Jor Bagh home minutes after he returned there from the AICC headquarters after addressing a Press conference in the presence of a battery of Congress leaders.

Around 8.15 pm, Chidambaram, who was untraceable for over 27 hours, appeared in the party office and told media that he was not evading arrest and asked the CBI to wait till Friday, when his petition is listed to be heard in the Supreme Court.

Along with senior Supreme Court lawyers and senior party colleagues Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, he then drove to his residence nearly 10 minutes away from the Congress office. On his trail were CBI and ED officials. A CBI team reached his Jor Bagh residence 115-A within minutes of his return.

The CBI team first knocked at the gates to gain entry but finding no response, they scaled the walls. Once three officers reached inside, they opened the gates to allow other team members waiting outside. Soon a team of officers, identifying themselves as from ED arrived at the scene.

Delhi Police personnel were posted to prevent any adverse law and order situation.

After his arrest, Chidambaram was taken to CBI headquarters, where doctors from RLM hospital conducted a routine health check up on him. He will be produced in a trial court on Thursday.

In the Press conference, Chidambaram put up a strong defence of himself and his family members, saying none of them has been accused of any offence by the probe agencies. “Until Friday and beyond, let’s hope the lamp of liberty will shine bright and illuminate the whole country,” he said, suggesting that the probe agencies should not arrest him until the apex court decides on his bail plea. “I will respect law even if applied with an unequal hand by probe agencies,” he said reading out from a written statement.

“I am aghast that I was accused of hiding from the law. On the contrary, I was seeking the protection of the law. I was aghast that I was accused of running away from justice. On the contrary, I was engaged in the pursuit of justice,” Chidambaram said while rejecting allegations that he was evading investigating agencies.

He said he was working with his lawyers through the last night, preparing his papers for his bail application.

“I believe that the foundation of a democracy is liberty, most precious article of the Constitution is Article 21 that guarantees life and liberty. If I’m asked to choose between life and liberty, I shall unhesitatingly choose liberty,” he said.

“To win freedom we must struggle. To preserve freedom too we must struggle,” he said.

His son, Karti Chidambaram, who is also accused of “wrongdoing” in the cases by probe agencies, termed the CBI/ED action as “political witch-hunt”.

“This is a political witch-hunt. Outrageous media leaks are the preferred tactics of the @dir_ed. I have nothing to do with INX or the FIPB. All my assets and liabilities are duly declared in statutory and regulatory filings. I have repeated this ad nauseam,” he tweeted.

He did not take any questions from journalists and left the venue after finishing his statement. His colleagues Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Singhvi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Ghulam Nabi Azad were in the Press conference with Chidambaram.

The arrest came after Chidambaram failed to get protection from the Supreme Court which decided to hear his appeal on Friday against Delhi High Court order. Registrar (Judicial) informed Chidambaram’s lawyers that Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi has listed the matter for hearing on Friday.

Soon after getting the message from Registrar (Judicial), a team of lawyers led by senior advocate Kapil Sibal had short deliberation in the consultation room after which they left the apex court.

Chidambaram, who was Home Minister and Finance Minister in the UPA Government from 2004-2014, had sought a stay on the Delhi High Court’s Tuesday judgement dismissing his anticipatory bail plea, paving the way for his arrest in cases related to the INX Media scam. The cases have been lodged by the CBI and the ED.

A big commotion was seen in the top court from 10.30 am to 5 pm as three attempts were made by his lawyers seeking urgent hearing on Wednesday itself, but the CJI decided that the case will be heard on Friday.

As per the apex court rules, the composition of the Bench which will hear his case will be known on Thursday evening. His petition was first mentioned by Sibal in the morning before a Bench, comprising Justices NV Ramana, M Shantanagoudar and Ajay Rastogi, which sent it for being placed before the CJI for his consideration to accord it urgent hearing.

When the team of lawyers representing Chidambaram did not receive any information on urgent listing, Sibal once again mentioned it before the same Bench after it assembled post lunch.

Sibal, flanked by other senior advocates Salman Khurshid, Vivek Tankha and Indira Jaising, told the Bench that the investigating agencies have issued a look-out notice against Chidambaram as if he is going to “run away”.

The top court said the defects in the petition had been removed “just now” and it “cannot be listed for hearing today itself”. “Without listing of the petition, we cannot hear the matter,” said the Bench.

“Sorry Mr Sibal. We cannot hear the matter,” the Bench said when he repeatedly asked for hearing the matter on Wednesday itself.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta opposed the plea of Chidambaram for hearing the matter on oral mentioning saying that the papers are not with him.

Just as the Bench assembled in the post lunch session, Sibal said he was once again mentioning the matter for listing as he had not heard anything from the Registry about its listing.

The Bench told him that there were some defects in the petition and the Registry had informed about it.

When Sibal said the defects have been cured, the Bench called Registrar (judicial) Surya Pratap Singh and enquired about the defects. The Registrar said the defects have been cured “just now”, and the petition will be placed before the CJI for allocating it before an appropriate Bench.

At this, Sibal said that the matter cannot be listed today as the CJI was sitting in the Constitution Bench and will not rise before 4 pm. While the senior advocate was repeatedly insisting the matter be heard, the Bench told him, “We have already directed the matter to be placed before CJI”.