Summary:
With all senior party leaders on the dais, Chidambaram told reporters that he has not been accused of any wrongdoing in INX Media case.
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Senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who has been eluding the CBI and ED, on Wednesday evening dramatically surfaced at the Congress headquarters.
He appeared at the party headquarters, hours after his petition challenging the Delhi High Court rejection of anticipatory bail was not listed in the Supreme Court.
With all senior party leaders on the dais, Chidambaram told reporters that he has not been accused of any wrongdoing in INX Media case.
"If I am asked to choose between life and liberty, I will unhesitatingly choose liberty.
I am aghast that I was accused of hiding from the law.
I will respect law even if applied with an unequal hand by probe agencies," he said.
Chidambaram hoped that probe agencies will respect law and await the Supreme Court`s decision on his bail plea on Friday.
"Until Friday and beyond, let`s hope the lamp of liberty will shine bright and illuminate the whole country," he further said.
In the morning, a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice N.V.
Ramana refused to grant interim relief from arrest to Chidambaram and referred his plea for an anticipatory bail in the INX media case to Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi for urgent hearing.
Chidambaram has challenged the Delhi High Court order, which rejected his anticipatory bail plea on Tuesday.
On 25 January, the Delhi High Court reserved order on Chidambaram`s bail plea in the case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The agencies had opposed Chidambaram`s bail plea, saying his custodial interrogation was necessary as he was evasive and had given false information during questioning.
The ED and the CBI are probing how his son Karti Chidambaram got clearance from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) in 2007 when Chidambaram was the Finance Minister.
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