The Supreme Court on Monday extended the interim protection granted to former union minister P Chidambaram from arrest by ED by one day, which was to end today. Now ED can’t arrest him till tomorrow, when the apex court will continue to hear the petition against Delhi High Court order rejecting anticipatory bail.
The hearing for the ED case had started today after the Supreme Court dismissed Chidambaram’s plea against Delhi High Court order denying him anticipatory bail in the CBI’s case. The court said that as he is already arrested by CBI, the plea has become infructuous and he needs to apply for regular bail.
In the ED case, P Chidambaram’s lawyer Kapil Sibal presented his arguments today. The court will hear the counter-arguments by ED tomorrow.
In his arguments, Kapil Sibal objected to ED submitting documents in a sealed cover at the court, saying the defendant need to know the contents of the documents presented by the prosecution to counter them. Sibal alleged that CBI had nothing to ask Chidambaram in the ongoing custodial interrogation, saying that CBI had asked whether he has a Twitter account.
Sibal alleged that a media trial was going on against the former union minister, saying that ED had leaked its statement to media, which was influencing judgements. Sibal had alleged that the Delhi High Court judge had copied the entire note in its judgement. But the ED lawyer Tushar Mehta denied the allegation, saying ED didn’t submit any such note with the Delhi High Court.
Sibal said that Chidambaram is ready to comply with any condition that is imposed on his bail. While he argued that the investigation in the case is over and there is no need of custodial interrogation, ED rejected that claim, saying the probe is still ongoing.
A Delhi court had granted CBI four days of custody of P Chidambaram after his dramatic arrest on 21st August, which ends today. CBI will present him at the court today for further orders.