New Delhi: A Delhi court Thursday granted anticipatory bail to former Finance Minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti in Aircel Maxis cases filed by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Special Judge O P Saini granted relief to the Chidambarams and directed them to join the probe in the cases.
“In event of arrest, they be released on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh and one surety of like amount. The accused are directed to join the investigation,” the court said.
The court said that both the probe agencies, instead of arguing the matter, were seeking date after date since the filing of the complaint on pretext of further investigation.
The court also pointed out that the probe in the Aircel-Maxis cases has been highly belated by both the agencies as almost entire material was in their possession since beginning.
The conduct of the agencies to seek date after date on pretext of further probe speaks for itself and needs no elaboration, the court said.
“No possibility for the Chidambarams to commit similar crime as they don’t hold official position in government now,” said the court, adding that the allegations of the agencies against the Chidambarams were not of grave magnitude as money laundered was only Rs 1.13 crore.
“The allegations against accused are also not of grave magnitude as money laundered is only Rs 1.13 crore, which is paltry amount in comparison to allegations against Dayanidhi Maran and others, where the bribe amount was Rs 749 crore but he was not arrested,” the court said.
It further added that the investigating agencies should not discriminate between two similar situated accused, as this was against the rule of law.
The Chidambarams are under the scanner of investigating agencies in the Aircel-Maxis deal as also the INX Media case involving Rs 305 crore.
After the verdict, Karti Chidambaram posted a series of tweets, in the first of which, he said, “We win some too”. Another tweet read, “As I have been saying it’s a non case. Been dragged into only due to political vendetta. I have no connection to Aircel Maxis or to FIPB. I had an Aircel sim though 🙂 and in time this INX bogey will also be slayed.”
Meanwhile P Chidambaram was produced before a Delhi court Thursday after expiry of his 2-day CBI custody in the INX Media corruption case. Hearing on the case is currently on.
P Chidambaram was brought to the special court hours after he withdrew his petition challenging the non-bailable warrant (NBW) issued against him following which he was sent to the CBI custody.
Chidambaram’s 15-day CBI custody, ordered by the special court in five spells, which started after his arrest August 21 night, ends Thursday.
Agencies