Chidambaram: From finance minister to kingpin, the big political twist in INX Media case

New Delhi, Aug 21: Former finance minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram is facing an arrest in the INX Media case.

Chidambaram is accused of facilitating the government's clearance for huge injection of foreign funds to the television company INX Media as Finance Minister in the UPA government, for which his son Karti Chidambaram allegedly received kickbacks.

So far, the CBI has visited P Chidambaram's residence in South Delhi's Jor Bagh thrice, after various teams of ED tried to locate him overnight but were unable to find him anywhere.

Back in 2010, when Chidambaram was Home Minister in the Congress-led government and Amit Shah, who is home minister today, was arrested in Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case and sent to jail shortly after he made a dramatic appearance at a BJP briefing.

"Karma spares no one." The twitter was quick to point out at Chidambaram, who had used entire CBI functionary against Amit Shah and Modi.

What was Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case

The charge sheet had named Shah as a key accused along with IPS officers D G Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandian, M N Dinesh and Abhay Chudasama. In all, 15 accused were named.

According to the charge sheet, it was Shah who had entrusted the task of eliminating Sheikh, an alleged gangster, to Vanzara, Pandia and Chudasama.

Shah claimed that he was innocent and said that charges against him were "fabricated, politically motivated and were on the instruction of Congress government" and demanded that his entire questioning by the CBI should be video-graphed.

The Gujarat High Court granted him bail three months after his arrest, on Friday, 29 October, 2010. However, the next day, when the courts were closed, Justice Aftab Alam took a petition at his residence to bar him from entering Gujarat. Shah was thus forcibly exiled from the state from 2010 to 2012.

In September 2012, the Supreme Court granted him bail, and allowed him to return to Gujarat. He then contested and won the 2012 Assembly election from Naranpura constituency.

Notably, the current director of the Enforcement Directorate, S K Mishra, also worked under Chidambaram when he was home minister.