New Delhi: Former Union Finance Minister and senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram, who is currently in judicial custody in the INX Media case, on Monday said he did not want any “officials involved” in the case to be arrested as they had done “no wrong”.
“I have requested my family to tweet on my behalf the following: People have asked me ‘if a 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?’ I have no answer,” he said, which was tweeted from his official Twitter handle by his family.
“No officer has done anything wrong. I do not want anyone to be arrested,” Chidambaram said.
Chidambaram was sent to the high-security Tihar jail on Thursday by a Delhi court after his 14-day CBI custody ended. The senior Congress leader is under probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate over alleged irregularities in grant of the FIPB clearance to INX Media at the alleged instance of his son Karti Chidambaram.
Chidambaram and his son were named by INX Media co-founders Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, who are currently in jail in Mumbai in connection with the murder of Indrani’s daughter Sheena Bora, in February last year.
Through his tweet, Chidambaram has tried to underscore that he had only signed off on the recommendation of the six-member Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). On Thursday, before Chidambaram was taken away to Tihar jail, he had accused the government of carrying out a witch-hunt and termed his arrest as political vendetta and also mocked the Centre over the economic slowdown.
Outside the court after the hearing, Chidambaram, instead of saying anything on his arrest had said, “Five per cent. Do you know what is five per cent?” He was referring to the latest GDP figures.
