New Delhi: Congress leader P Chidambaram, in jail for alleged corruption in clearances given to INX Media when he was Union finance minister, on Monday said no officer had done anything wrong and he did not want anyone to be arrested.
Chidambaram, who was sent to judicial custody in Tihar Jail last week in connection with the INX Media corruption case, asked his family to post a message from him on Twitter. The veteran Congress leader said people asked him why only he had been arrested, but he had no answer.
“I have requested my family to tweet on my behalf the following: People have asked me ‘If the dozen officers who processed and recommended the case to you have not been arrested, why have you been arrested? Only because you have put the last signature’?” the tweet from Chidambaram’s official Twitter handle said. “I have no answer,” he said.
“No officer has done anything wrong. I do not want anyone to be arrested,” Chidambaram said in another tweet. Chidambaram was put behind bars last Thursday, hours after a CBI court sent him to two-week judicial custody in the INX Media case, an unprecedented setback for the Congress veteran who even offered to surrender to the ED in a desperate attempt to be spared the ignominy of going to prison.
The CBI registered an FIR on 15 May 2017, alleging irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance granted to the INX Media group for receiving overseas funds of Rs 305 crore in 2007 during Chidambaram’s tenure as finance minister. Thereafter, the ED lodged a money laundering case in this regard in 2017.
INX Media had sought the FIPB clearances on 13 March 2007, for permission to issue, by way of preferential allotment, up to 14.98 equity shares to three non-resident entities – Dunearn, NSR PE and New Veron Pvt Equity Ltd.