INX Media case: SC issues notice to ED on Chidambaram's bail plea

New Delhi, Nov 20: The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to Enforcement Directorate on the petition filed by former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram the judgment of the Delhi High Court denying him bail in the INX Media money-laundering case.

The SC bench headed by Justice Banumathi has posted the case next on November 26.

Appearing for Chidambaram, Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Dr A M Singhvi submitted that he had been under custody for past 91 days.

He satisfies the triple test for grant of bail, they submitted.

On Monday, newly-sworn-in Chief Justice of India S A Bobde, ordered the listing of the bail plea before an appropriate bench today.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal had sought an urgent listing of the bail plea.

Sibal told the bench, also comprising justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant, that Chidambaram had been in jail for around 90 days.

On November 15, the Delhi High Court had dismissed Chidambaram's bail plea in the INX media case filed by the ED, saying prima facie allegations against him were serious in nature.

The former union minister was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on August 21 in the money laundering case and was granted bail by the Supreme Court on October 22.

While ED arrested him on October 16 and is presently in judicial custody till November 27 under the order of a trial court.

What is INX Media case?

In the month of March 2007, the INX Media had approached the finance ministry for issuing 14.98 lakh equity shares and 31.22 lakh convertible non-cumulative redeemable preference shares. Each share was to be priced at Rs 10 a piece, owned by three non-resident investors under the FDI route.

The financial intelligence unit of the finance ministry, however, in January 2008 found that there was an anomaly in the money flow into INX Media from three firms based in Mauritius. The case was then sent to the Enforcement Directorate, which probed the fund flow.

The matter was then referred to the CBI, following which an FIR was registered and the case in May 2017 and this came to be known as the INX Media case. The ED on the other hand probed the money laundering aspect into this case.