ED Puts Lookout Notice For Chidambaram

New Delhi: With investigating agencies on his trail, former Union minister P Chidambaram failed to win a reprieve on Wednesday morning after he asked the Supreme Court for an urgent hearing on his petition for anticipatory bail in the INX Media case.

The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday put out a lookout circular for Chidambaram, who has not been seen since the High Court denied him protection from arrest on Tuesday, after which the CBI visited his Delhi home twice, NDTV reported.

Past midnight on Tuesday, CBI pasted a notice outside the house asking the former Finance Minister to appear before it within two hours of receiving the note.

“It is a monumental magnitude of money laundering case,” the CBI told the top court on Wednesday. The SC then forwarded the senior Congress leader’s petition for an urgent hearing to Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.

In his petition to the SC, Chidambaram argued that his antecedents were “impeccable” and there was no possibility of him “fleeing from justice”. Requesting more time to appear before the CBI, Chidambaram asked for interim relief “or else he would suffer irreparable loss”.

Notably, Chidambaram faces arrest in what is dubbed the INX Media case. He is accused of facilitating foreign investment in the media company as Finance Minister in the UPA government in 2007, at the instance of his son Karti, who allegedly received kickbacks for his role.