Chidambaram moves Supreme Court over CBI, ED raids

It violates right to live with dignity, says the former Finance Minister

Former Union Minister and Congress leader P. Chidambaram.

Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told the Supreme Court that frequent raids on his premises and harassment of him and his family by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) were a “total farce”.

Listing every raid conducted by the agencies on his Chennai and Delhi residences and offices and summons issued to him and his family since 2015, Mr. Chidambaram, in a 26-page writ petition, said the entire effort was only to “malign” him in the eyes of the public.

Dignity violated

He said the “constant leakage to the media” by the CBI and the ED about their “farcical investigation” had violated his fundamental right to live with dignity in society.

Mr. Chidambaram asked the Supreme Court to prohibit the CBI and the ED from conducting “illegal investigations” into the Aircel-Maxis case, which deals with a FIPB approval in 2006 to a Mauritius company to acquire 73.99% equity in Aircel Ltd, a telecom service provider. He asked the court to declare the criminal proceedings of the CBI and the “premature investigation” of the ED in the INX Media case as “without jurisdiction” and an “abuse of authority”.

Asking the court to protect his fundamental rights, Mr. Chidambaram referred to how the Income Tax Department was “roped in” to single him out for harassment. He referred to accusations against him and his family of selling “cured coffee” from their estates, and that 25% of their income from assessment year 2009-10 was assessed to tax as non-agricultural income. This was done six years later.

In the Aircel-Maxis case, he said neither he nor his son, Karti Chidambaram, were named accused or suspects in the FIR.