New Delhi: Thursday, 5 September, is a crucial day for former union finance and home minister P. Chidambaram. Four cases being heard in different courts will decide whether the Congress leader goes to jail or stays free.
The CBI has accused Chidambaram of using his position as finance minister to help INX Media rake in irregular Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approvals worth Rs 305 crore.
Here are the four cases:
Petition against CBI court remand order
Chidambaram has been in CBI custody since 21 August, and it has already been more than 14 days since the first remand order for custodial interrogation was passed by special CBI judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar.
This order has been challenged before the Supreme Court by way of a special leave petition. In case the Supreme Court decides that the order passed by the lower court was bad in law, Chidambaram’s detention by the CBI would be illegal.
However, the CBI has strongly objected to any possibility of the court entertaining the special leave petition, and through an affidavit, informed the court that if it takes note of the plea, it would set a “precedent” where other litigants would also approach the SC challenging orders of lower courts granting police custody.
Interim bail plea before CBI court
Chidambaram will be pressing for interim bail as his CBI custody ends on 5 September.
If the court decides to not grant interim bail, the former finance minister will have no option but to proceed to judicial custody as mandated.
The interim bail plea was supposed to be heard on 2 September, but Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had argued that an earlier notice to prosecution was mandatory before moving for interim bail.
However, now, with the SC direction of status quo on 3 September, the trial judge was left with no option but to extend Chidambaram’s CBI custody till 5 September and also slot the hearing of the interim bail plea on the same day.
Also read: What separates Modi’s NDA from Manmohan Singh’s UPA – Chidambaram’s arrest
SC verdict in ED case
Chidambaram had approached the top court immediately after the Delhi High Court struck down his anticipatory bail plea seeking protection from arrest by both CBI and ED.
However after his arrest by the CBI, only the ED plea survived, and was argued in the apex court.
If the bench led by Justice R. Banumathi decides to grant him interim protection from ED arrest, then only the CBI case would go on. But if the plea is struck down, it would open the door for the ED to arrest Chidambaram immediately once he is out of CBI custody on bail.
Solicitor General Mehta, appearing for the ED, had earlier argued that there was no requirement of “exposing the materials, sources and evidence to the accused at the stage of pre-arrest bail” and that investigation is the exclusive domain of the probe agency, whereas Chidambaram’s legal team maintained that any such arrest was only an attempt to humiliate him.
Aircel-Maxis case
Another case on Chidambaram’s mind would be the Aircel-Maxis case, which is at an advanced stage of investigation compared to the INX Media case.
The case also relates to alleged irregularities in FIPB approval, but this is in the Rs 3,500 crore Aircel-Maxis deal when Chidambaram was finance minister. Chidambaram and son Karti were named in the charge sheet filed by the CBI in the case on 19 July last year, but were given interim protection from arrest after they filed anticipatory bail applications.
However, on 2 September, the CBI court of judge O.P. Saini reserved its order on their anticipatory bail pleas for 5 September.
Police custody vs judicial custody
Chidambaram’s is the first case in Indian judicial history when the accused has been kept in police custody even though the police, in this case the CBI, categorically stated in court that it no longer needed him for custodial interrogation on 2 September. Instead, the court ordered a status quo until 5 September, as mentioned above.
The difference between police custody and judicial custody needs to be clarified here.
When the police take a person into custody, the Criminal Procedure Code comes into force and the individual must be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours. The magistrate then decides whether the accused should be sent to police custody (if it requests such custody for further investigations, recovering evidence etc.) or should be kept in the magistrate’s custody.
A maximum of 14 days of police custody is awarded, which can be extended if the court mandates in exceptional circumstances. At the end of this period, the accused has to be produced again before the magistrate, who then decides whether to extend the police custody or send the accused to judicial custody.
In Chidambaram’s case, if the top court decides to not entertain the special leave petition against the remand order, and in case the interim bail application before the trial court is rejected, the only option for the court would be to send Chidambaram to judicial custody.
Also read: Chidambaram arrest shows a new normal. Under Modi-Shah, nobody is above the law
It is true that nobody is above law. That does not preclude catching up by law enforcing body those in the ruling party indulging in corruption.