Protection from ED arrest extended for Chidambaram in INX Media case

New Delhi, Aug 27: The Supreme Court has extended till tomorrow protection from arrest by the Enforcement Directorate granted to former finance minister, P Chidambaram, in the INX Media case.

A Bench headed by Justice Banumathi, will continue hearing the petition on Wednesday, until when the interim protection would last.

Arguing for the former minister, senior advocate, Kapil Sibal said that the application filed to produce transcripts for interrogation, documents relied on by the ED can never be part of the case diary. Behind Chidambaram’s back, you cannot place documents and seek arrest. Even in matters of detention this is not possible, he said.

Let them show transcripts of the questioning done on 3 former occasions in December 2018 and January 2019 to see whether they had confronted him with the documents, Sibal also said.

Abhishek Manu Singhvi also arguing for Chidambaram said that the questions put before the accused and the answers should be given to the court.

On Monday, the court had extended protection to Chidambaram from being arrested by the ED.

On Monday, Kapil Sibal said that the Delhi High Court judgment was a word to word copy of a secret note given by the probe agency.

This was countered by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who said that the contents were taken from the records of the case.

Sibal sought to know how conclusions could be drawn without an affidavit being filed.

After having being questioned for over 26 hours, the only question that the CBI has asked P Chidambaram is whether he maintains a bank account in Britain, senior Sibal told the Supreme Court.