New Delhi: The CBI yesterday arrested senior Congress leader and former Union finance minister P Chidambaram last night after a day-long drama. After arrest, the leader was taken to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital for a medical check up and was later confined at the CBI guest house.
At 10 pm, the 73-year-old was brought to the CBI headquarters and he reportedly spent the night in suite 5 on the ground floor of the agency’s headquarters. It is the norm for the CBI to keep high security arrested accused in the guest house to ensure proper security and monitoring. A media report said that he remained silent for most of is stay at the guest house.
The Congress leader was arrested for his alleged involvement in the INX media corruption case. Chidambaram had allegedly given Rs 305 crore clearance to INX media when he was the Union finance minister.
According to the FIR, the INX media which was once promoted by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea had allegedly made payments to a firm linked to finance minister’s son Karti Chidambaram.
Both Peter and Indrani Mukerjea are in jail for murdering Indrani’s daughter Sheena Bora. However, P Chidambaram has strongly denied the allegations, saying the payments were for consultancy and his son was in no way associated with that company.
DySP R Parthasarthy is leading the probe. The CBI will conduct questioning of Chidambaram at around 10 am today.