Lodging at CBI office or another similar place, security, home-cooked food, western toilet, medicines, spectacles and family visits were some of the matters sought by P. Chidambaram during his course of time in custody. He is currently in judicial custody in INX Media case, moved a request in front of Delhi Court seeking facilities.
His lawyer Kapil Sibal applied for the same on the day his judicial custody ended, and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sought his 14-day custody in a money laundering case. P.Chidambaram is currently under the custody of ED after being questioned on Wednesday in Tihar jail, where he was kept in charge of the corruption case imposed on him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
While agreeing to some of the demands (home-cooked food and security) of the former union minister–Solicitor General Tushar Mehta stated that air conditioning and the separate cell couldn’t be provided.
Chidambaram is being investigated for alleged irregularities in the grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas investment to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007. He was finance minister in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government during that time. His son Karti Chidambaram is also involved in the case.
Crossing the ED’s appeal for Chindhambarams’s custody for investigation, Sibal stated that ED has not been able to produce any new reason for the request. Moreover, after arresting and keeping him in remand for almost 60 days, this is more like a ruse.
Tushar Mehta, in reply to Sibal, stated that the ED had submitted to the Supreme Court that there was a need for custodial interrogation. “It was not contended that custody was needed urgently… On September 5, we had said that we are yet to examine some witnesses, and therefore his custody was not sought at the time. The last witness was examined on October 9 and filed this application on October 14.”
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