The Supreme Court today listed for August 23 the anticipatory bail plea hearing of former finance minister P Chidambaram seeking protection from arrest in the INX Media Case, a day after the Delhi High Court refused to grant him interim relief.

 No mention of Chidambaram`s plea was made in court after the Ayodhya land dispute hearing came to an end on Wednesday.  The high court denied the anticipatory bail plea to Chidambaram, saying he seems to be the "kingpin" and "key conspirator" in the case and needs to be interrogated in custody for the investigation to be effective. 

 Holding that the INX media scam was a "classic case of money laundering", the court said the twin facts which have weighed to deny pre-arrest bail to Chidambaram are "gravity" of the offence and "evasive" replies given by him to questions put to him while he was under protective cover extended to him by the court. 

Hours after the Delhi high court refused former Union finance minister P Chidambaram to grant any protection from arrest in the INX Media case, the CBI issued a notice to him asking him to appear before the investigation officer "within two hours", after failing to find him at his residence on Tuesday.

On Tuesday at around 6.30 PM,  CBI and ED team reached Chidambaram`s residence  Jor Bagh. A Team of CBI officials issued a notice asking Chidambaram to appear before R Parthasarthy, CBI Deputy SP, who is probing the case to record his statement under Section 161 of the CrPC.

While Chidambaram reached apex court hours after Delhi high court order dismissing his anticipatory bail plea.The Supreme Court took the matter to hear on Wednesday.

The legal team of P Chidambaram has asked the CBI not to take any coercive action against the former Union finance minister as his petition is to be heard in the Supreme Court Wednesday morning.

On Wednesday, when the matter was taken in Supreme Court the apex court said that it cannot pass an order on Chidambaram`s plea . Justice Ramana forwarded the case to Chief justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.

 Congress leaders have severely criticized the investigation agencies move.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, "India witnesses worst kind of virulent vendetta by Modi Govt as the BJP runs a police state. Judge reserves judgement for 7 months & delivers it 72 hours before retirement, CBI/ED are sent to raid as a respected former FM is hounded. Banana Republic?"

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on twitter wrote

"An extremely qualified and respected member of the Rajya Sabha, P Chidambaram ji has served our nation with loyalty for decades including as finance minister & home minister. He unhesitatingly speaks truth to power and exposes the failures of this government, but the truth is inconvenient to cowards so he is being shamefully hunted down. We stand by him and will continue to fight for the truth no matter what the consequences are."

The CBI had alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance granted to the media group for receiving overseas funds of Rs 305 crore in 2007 during Chidambaram`s tenure as the finance minister. 

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