The Supreme Court will hear on Wednesday former Union minister P Chidambaram’s plea challenging the Delhi High Court order denying him bail in the money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the INX Media case. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned the plea before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde, which listed it for Wednesday. In his petition, Chidambaram stated that he had been incarcerated “for a continuous period of approximately 89 days”. The petition pointed out that the High Court order had stated that he was not a flight risk, nor was there any chance of him tampering with evidence. The Congress leader stated that the only other co-accused to be arrested in the money laundering case, S Bhaskararaman, has already been granted bail. Chidambaram said his ED custody was over on October 30, after which he has been in judicial custody but was never questioned during this period. The petition stated that there was, thus, neither any purpose to keep him in judicial custody any longer, nor had he been confronted with any witness while in ED custody. The senior Congress leader said that if the High Court had verified his alleged involvement “it would have been revealed that he (petitioner Chidambaram) had no role or connection whatsoever with any of the alleged shell companies, alleged benami properties or foreign bank accounts or any other allegation of money laundering made by the ED”. The ED, the petition stated, “after more than two years of investigation, and after 14 days of custodial interrogation of the Petitioner, failed to identify even a single ‘shell company’ owned or controlled by the Petitioner or any ‘undisclosed foreign bank account’ or any ‘benami property’” in his name. Chidambaram submitted that he has “no undisclosed bank accounts, either in India or abroad, or any shell companies”, and that “assets of the Petitioner have been duly declared in his tax returns and have been informed to the Rajya Sabha, since the Petitioner is a sitting Member of Parliament from Rajya Sabha”. The petition stated that the alleged offence being an economic offence, and constituting a separate class, “cannot be a factor in denying bail” to him. “A person cannot be directed to suffer pre-trial incarceration in the form of punishment even before trial.(as) a wrong message would go out to the public at large inasmuch as all other accused are either on bail or were not even arrested,” according to the petition. The money laundering case is an offshoot of the INX Media graft case registered by the CBI in which Chidambaram has already been granted bail.
