INX Media case: Supreme Court grants bail to Chidambaram

New Delhi: Former Union Minister P Chidambaram heaved a sigh of relief on Wednesday as he is set to walk a free man after being in jail for 106 days.

In a major relief, which his family and Congress party are celebrating, the Supreme Court on Wednesday granted him bail in the INX Media money laundering case that was filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Pronouncing the order, Justice Bopanna said "Gravity of an offence required to be kept in mind after gathering facts and circumstances of each case."

He further stated that economic offences fall under the category of grave offences and the three-judge Bench of R. Banumathi, A.S. Bopanna, and Hrishikesh Roy stated that the Delhi High Court was "justified in adverting to the gravity of the offence in its order denying bail."

However, while granting bail to the veteran Congress leader, the apex court observed that the observations recorded by the High Court to the nature of the merits of the case were not right and set aside the HC order to grant a conditional bail to Chidambaram. They include: :

A. He will make himself available for interrogation during the course of further interrogation as and when called by the agency.

B. He cannot travel overseas and must not tamper with witnesses or try to influence them.

C. He will not make any statements to the press and will not make any public comment in connection with this case.

The court further added that this order will not have any bearing on the other related cases and asked Chidambaram to surrender his passport and provide Bond of Rs 2 lakh along with two sureties of equal amounts.

Chidambaram was first arrested by CBI from his Jor Bagh's residence after an unprecedented drama on August 21 and was granted bail by the Supreme Court on October 22. Later, the Enforcement Directorate arrested him on October 16 in the money-laundering case.

SON KARTI REACTS TO VERDICT

First to react to the judgement was P. Chidambaram's son, Karti, who is also an accused in this case.

He tweeted, "Phew. At last after 106 days," with a smiley.

TRUTH PREVAILS: CONGRESS

As soon as the news of PC's bail was out, Congress welcomed the verdict and tweeted, "Truth finally prevails. #SatyamevaJayate"

CONGRESS CELEBRATING CORRUPTION: SAMBIT PATRA

While taking a dig at Congress party and Chidambaram, BJP's National Spokesperson Sambit Patra tweeted "Classic case of @INCIndia “Celebrating Corruption”!!

Taking a dig at PC, Patra added "So finally Chidambaram too joins the long list of “OOBC(Out On Bail Club)” in the Congress. He joins the coveted Club, some members of which are: Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Robert Vadra, Motilal Vohra, Bhupinder Hooda, Sashi Tharoor, Etc Etc"

So finally Chidambaram too joins the long list of “OOBC(Out On Bail Club)” in the Congress ..He joins the coveted Club,some members of which are:
1)Sonia Gandhi
2)Rahul Gandhi
3)Robert Vadra
4)Motilal Vohra
5)Bhupinder Hooda
6)Sashi Tharoor
Etc Etc https://t.co/VPVxcqzv4H

? Sambit Patra (@sambitswaraj) December 4, 2019