‘Violated bail conditions on very first day’: Javadekar on Chidambaram

Taking a swipe at former finance minister P Chidambaram on Thursday, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar said that the veteran Congress leader had violated the conditions on which he got bail on the very first day after his release.

“P Chidambaram has violated his bail conditions on the very first day. The court had asked him not to give any public statement on the case as a condition for bail but Chidambaram today said that his record as a minster was very clear,” Javdekar told news agency ANI.

Former finance minister P Chidambaram left Tihar Jail late on Wednesday evening after being granted bail by the Supreme Court in connection with the INX Media money laundering case. The senior Congress leader had been in custody for 106 days. He was greeted by son Karti Chidambaram and a number of Congress party workers as he stepped out of jail.

Soon after his release on bail, the Congress leader had said, “I cannot comment on the case. I will obey the honourable Supreme Court’s order and not speak about the case. But the fact is, after 106 days of pre-trial incarceration, not a single charge has been framed against me.”

Chidambaram also made a reference to Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday after he attended Parliament’s ongoing Winter Session. “As I stepped out and breathed the air of freedom at 8 pm last night, my first thought and prayers were for the 75 lakh people of the Kashmir Valley who have been denied their basic freedoms since August 4, 2019,” he said.

Reacting to the Congress leader’s comment on freedom in Kashmir, Javadekar hit back saying that Kashmir was “burning” during the former’s stint as the Union Home Minister. “Stone pelting has decreased by more than half. During Chidambaram’s time, Kashmir was burning, now it is on the path of progress,” Javdekar reiterated.

A Rajya Sabha member, Chidambaram had been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on August 21 for alleged irregularities in the grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media to receive overseas funds to the tune of Rs 307 crore in 2007. Chidambaram was the finance minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at that time.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday had ordered that the former finance minister should not give any media interview and also not make public statements with regard to the INX Media money laundering case.

“I have never commented on cases that are subjudice and I shall continue to adhere to that principle. To many of your possible questions on the case, the answers can be found in the lucid order of the Supreme Court pronounced yesterday,” Chidambaram told reporters.

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