As former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram walked out of the Tihar jail to a rousing welcome by Congress supporters on Wednesday evening, he said there was not a single charge against him.
“I cannot speak on the case, and I will obey the orders but the fact is that after 106 days’ incarceration, there is not a single charge against me,” Mr. Chidambaram told presspersons outside the jail.
Apart from a large gathering of party workers, Mr. Chidambaram’s son and Lok Sabha member, Karti, along with a couple of Congress MPs from Tamil Nadu, patiently waited for him to come out.
Mr. Chidambaram then went to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s residence to offer his gratitude for visiting him in jail, along with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
“I am very happy that he is coming home. It’s been a long 106 days, an unwarranted pre-trial remand. I am glad that the SC has given relief,” Mr. Karti told The Hindu .
He said his father, who is a sitting Rajya Sabha member, would be in Parliament on Thursday morning.
Earlier in the day, soon after the Supreme Court gave relief, the party’s official handle tweeted: “Truth finally prevails #SatyamevaJayate.”
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi too took to Twitter to express support to his senior party colleague.
“Mr. P. Chidambaram’s 106-day incarceration was vengeful & vindictive. I’m glad that the SC has granted him bail. I’m confident that he will be able to prove his innocence in a fair trial,” Mr. Gandhi said in a tweet.
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said Mr. Chidambaram was an asset for his party. “The way Delhi Police scaled the walls of his house, the residence of a former Home Minister, it was as if he was a relative of Osama bin Laden,” he said.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said justice delayed is justice denied. “The bail should have been granted much earlier,” he said.
Senior lawyer and party colleague, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who argued in the Supreme Court earlier, said the court order is “balanced, nuanced and comprehensive.”
