Former finance minister P Chidambaram, who is in CBI custody in the INX Media case, on Tuesday claimed before the Supreme Court that the ED wanted his arrest just to "humiliate" him and asked how he can be painted as a 'kingpin' for an offence with retrospective effect.
As the top court extended till tomorrow the interim protection from arrest granted to Chidambaram on August 23 in the related money laundering case lodged by the Enforcement Directorate(ED), the senior Congress leader's family alleged that the government's motive was to "demonise and humiliate" him.
"We challenge the government to produce a shred of evidence in support of one undisclosed bank account, one undisclosed property or one shell company anywhere in the world," said the statement by the family of Chidambaram that was uploaded on the twitter handle of his son Karti, who is also an accused in the INX Media case. Karti is currently on bail.
Stating that the Prevention of Money Laundering Act(PMLA) was being retrospectively applied against him, Chidambaram also submitted that the ED be asked to produce transcripts of his questioning in the money laundering case.
The CBI lodged an FIR on May 15, 2017, alleging irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board(FIPB) clearance granted to the INX Media group for receiving overseas funds of Rs 305 crore in 2007 during Chidambaram's tenure as finance minister. Thereafter, the ED lodged a money laundering case.
Chidambaram's counsel told the apex court that he was quizzed by the ED on three dates in 2018 and 2019 and transcripts of questioning would clear the air on whether he was evasive in his replies, as alleged by it while seeking his custodial interrogation.
"Their (ED) case is that they have all the evidence and documents. Our case is that they never put it (document) to him during the questioning," senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for 73-year-old Chidambaram, told a bench of Justices R Banumathi and A S Bopanna.
The bench will continue with the hearing on Wednesday,