NDA parties liken Chidambaram to Vijay Mallya, Nirav Mallya

New Delhi, Aug 21: Even as the Congress accused the government of misusing the ED and the CBI, both the BJP and the Shiv Sena left no stone unturned to mock former finance minister P Chidambaram who is facing serious allegations in the in the INX Media case.

Chidambaram's urgent petition to seek pre-arrest bail has been listed for a hearing by the Supreme Court two days later, on Friday. The court's decision comes after Chidambaram's legal team led by Congress leader Kapil Sibal made several attempts through the day for an immediate hearing by the top court.

"Gandhi family gave free hand to Chidambaram to go ahead in the INX Media case. Chidambaram is behaving like fugitive businessmen Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya by not cooperating with the central agencies. No one will be spared," BJP spokesman GVL Narasimha Rao said.

Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut went one step further and said when Chidambaram was asking about Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, he was actually more interested in knowing how they fled the country

"When Chidambaram used to ask that...
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It seemed that he was asking questions to the government. Who knew then that he was not asking questions but looking for a way to escape," Raut tweeted.

The Delhi High Court had on Tuesday refused to grant any protection from arrest to Chidambaram in the INX Media case, following which the CBI issued a notice to him asking him to appear before the investigation officer "within two hours" after failing to find him at his residence.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also issued a fresh look out circular against the former Union minister. They said the alert notice against the Congress leader, whose anticipatory bail was cancelled on Tuesday, has been sent to all land, air and seaports and law enforcement agencies at these facilities. It says the ED should be alerted in case the person is found on their premises. It also asks them to not allow the Congress leader to cross the Indian border without the permission of the ED.

The officials said this is a preventive measure exercised by the agency as Chidambaram's whereabouts are not known at present and he is required by them to take the probe forward in the INX Media case, being investigated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act