The Supreme Court on Monday, September 2, ordered Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to keep Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram under house arrest till Thursday, avoiding Delhi's Tihar Jail on account of his age.
"There must be some protection to Chidambaram. He is 74 years old. Let him be put under house arrest and not to Tihar Jail," Kapil Sibal, Chidambaram's legal representation and a senior Congress member said in the Supreme Court.
The apex court said that Chidambaram should apply for regular bail before the special CBI court. Judges R Banumathi and AS Bopanna questioned Chidambaram on his house arrest plea as it is only applied for political prisoners.
Sibal called sending the senior former minister to Tihar a "humiliation" and questioned what would happen if the trial court rejected the request and sent him to jail.
The CBI contested against the order and said that the special CBI court has the authority to decide on where the former union minister should be held.
Chidambaram was arrested by the CBI on August 21 in connection with the INX Media Ltd money laundering case in which he is accused of assisting foreign investment into the television company in 2007 during his tenure as Finance minister in the Congress-led UPA government. It is also reported that his son Karti Chidambaram exerted influence on the public servant that made the company's operation possible without approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIBP)
Senior Tihar officials a few weeks ago said that Chidambaram will be sent to jail once his CBI remand is completed. It was said that if the senior former minister was not granted bail, he would be lodged in Jail No 7 which is meant for economic offenders.
