INX media case: Delhi court allows ED to grill Chidambaram for 30 mins

A Delhi court on Tuesday allowed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to interrogate former Union Minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram for 30 minutes in connection with INX media money laundering case.

The agency will interrogate him in Delhi's Tihar jail tomorrow.

The court gave an option to ED to either interrogate Chidambaram at the court premises or at Tihar jail.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the ED, said he wanted to interrogate him at the court premises, but advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing on behalf of Chidambaram, objected to the same citing dignity of the proceedings.

Earlier, a special court on Monday reserved its order on the ED's application seeking the arrest of Chidambaram for interrogating him in the matter. The agency had sought permission from a Delhi court to arrest Chidambaram and interrogate him in custody.

Mehta, in the previous hearing, had said that Chidambaram's custodial interrogation is required as the agency wants to seek information related to a shell company abroad and his 17 bank accounts.

Sibal, however, opposed the agency's application .

Chidambaram is currently in judicial custody in Tihar jail in a corruption case related to the alleged scam being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). His remand is slated to end on October 17.

The case pertains to an FIR registered by the CBI for alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance given to INX Media to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 by Chidambaram when he was the Finance Minister.