Arrested Chidambaram on Indrani Mukerjea's testimony? Cong questions Modi govt's dependability

New Delhi, Aug 22: The Congress on Thursday continued to rally around its veteran leader P Chidambaram who was arrested in the INX Media case late on Wednesday night, saying that the government is trying to divert the attention from economic issues.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, addressing the media, said that the Government is hell-bent upon using CBI and ED as personal revenge-seeking departments, which is evident in the way P Chidambaram has been persecuted and prosecuted. He added that it was nothing short of personal vendetta.''

"I hope that those CBI officials, who scaled the walls of P Chidambaram's residence to feed the media propaganda and please their political masters, will now also have the courage to tell the PMO that there is no evidence against P Chidambaram and Karti Chidambaram,'' Surjewala said.

He also questioned Indrani Mukherjee's confession on the basis of which CBI has arrested Chidambaram.

"A seasoned man with 40 years of dedication to public life has been arrested on the statement of a jailed woman who is being charged with murdering her own daughter," Surjewala said.

He further said that while many accused in the INX Media case have not been arrested, a senior politician has been arrested without any legal basis.

Earlier in the day, Congress leader P Chidambaram's son said the arrest of his father by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is a plot to divert attention from the crucial issue of Article 370.

Karti told news agency ANI that the arrest of his father and senior Congress leader is "totally vindictive" and done by a "pliant" agency.

Former union minister P Chidambaram had spent the night at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) headquarters after a dramatic arrest late on Wednesday from his house in south Delhi by officials who even climbed a wall in their attempts to get to him.

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 R305 crore in 2007 when Chidambaram was finance minister.

The CBI registered a first information report on May 15, 2017, alleging irregularities in the manner the clearance had been awarded and the ED filed a money laundering case a year later.

Chidambaram has strongly denied the allegations, saying the payments were for consultancy and his son was in no way associated with that company.