The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday issued a lookout notice for former Finance Minister P Chidambaram. The ED's notice to airports and immigration desks came after the Supreme Court refused to grant any interim relief to the Congressman in the INX Media case.
A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice NV Ramana refused to give interim relief and instead referred the petition asking for anticipatory bail to Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi for urgent hearing.
A day after the Delhi High Court rejected the former Minister's anticipatory bail plea in the INX Media case, Priyanka called Chidambaram an extremely qualified and respected member of the Rajya Sabha, and added that the party stands by its leader and "will continue to fight for the truth no matter what the consequences are”.
An extremely qualified and respected member of the Rajya Sabha, @PChidambaram_IN ji has served our nation with loyalty for decades including as Finance Minister & Home Minister. He unhesitatingly speaks truth to power and exposes the failures of this government,
— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) August 21, 2019
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"He unhesitatingly speaks truth to power and exposes the failures of this government, but the truth is inconvenient to cowards so he is being shamefully hunted down," she tweeted.
Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi accused the Modi government of using the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and sections of the media to indulge in character assassination of P Chidambaram.
Modi's Govt is using the ED, CBI & sections of a spineless media to character assassinate Mr Chidambaram.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 21, 2019
I strongly condemn this disgraceful misuse of power.
The Congress on Tuesday described the CBI and ED action against senior party leader P. Chidambaram as "political vendetta" and accused the government of targeting opposition leaders.
Speaking to reporters, senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said, "Chidambaram approached the High Court for anticipatory bail, which is his right and the court did not accept that. That order is appealable and an application has already been moved, which will be heard in the Supreme Court tomorrow. I fail to understand what is going to happen at night. Heavens have not opened up," he said, referring to the teams of CBI and ED reaching Chidambaram's residence.
Anand Sharma said the manner in which the CBI and ED teams descended at Chidambaram's residence raised fundamental questions.
"It a not a conviction but only the cancellation of his bail," he said.
The Rajya Sabha member said Chidambaram is an "eminent person, a law-abiding citizen".
His remarks came after a team of CBI and the ED arrived at the residence of Chidambaram hours after the Delhi High Court rejected his anticipatory bail plea.
Chidambaram has approached the Supreme Court for urgent hearing seeking protection from arrest.
The CBI is probing Chidambaram in the INX Media case, which it had registered on May 15, 2017 alleging irregularities in the FIPB clearance granted to the media group for receiving overseas funds of Rs 305 crore in 2007 during his tenure as finance minister. The ED is probing the money laundering case which it registered in 2018.
"We have been witnessing in the last few years that there is a selective targeting and politics of vendetta with the leaders of opposition whether its leaders of the Congress, Samajwadi Party, Trinamool Congress, RJD, DMK .... its a long list," said Anand Sharma.
"In BJP there are serious allegations against its Chief Ministers and even today those who are in office but in there cases, the same agencies go silent," he alleged.
With IANS inputs