BackED wants arrest only to humiliate me: Chidambaram to Supreme Court
'You are trying to paint a person as a kingpin when these alleged offences did not exist at that time,' Chidambaram's lawyer saidSolicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for ED, said he would respond to Chidambaram's plea seeking production of transcripts of his questioning on Wednesday
PremiumNew Delhi: Former finance minister P. Chidambaram said in the Supreme Court Tuesday that the ED be asked to produce transcripts of his questioning in INX Media money laundering case and claimed that the probe agency wanted his arrest just to "humiliate" him.
Chidambaram's counsel told the apex court that he was quizzed by the Enforcement Directorate on three dates in 2018 and 2019 and transcripts of questioning would clear the air on whether he was evasive in his replies, as alleged by it while seeking his custodial interrogation.
"Their (ED) case is that they have all the evidence and documents. Our case is that they never put it (document) to him during the questioning," senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for 73-year-old Chidambaram, told a bench of Justices R Banumathi and A S Bopanna.
The bench, which would continue with the hearing on Wednesday, extended till tomorrow the interim protection from arrest granted to Chidambaram on August 23 in the case lodged by the ED.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for ED, said he would respond to Chidambaram's plea seeking production of transcripts of his questioning on December 19 last year and January 1 and January 21 this year during his arguments tomorrow.
Sibal said they have also filed another application to place on record additional facts and challenge the order passed by the trial court on Monday extending the CBI's remand of Chidambaram till August 30 in the INX Media corruption case.
Chidambaram has also challenged the August 22 trial court's order remanding him to CBI custody till August 26.
During the arguments, Sibal said ED cannot place documents in the court randomly and "behind the back" for seeking Chidambaram's custody.
"They are just producing documents at random and saying this is part of the case diary," Sibal said, adding, "They cannot place the documents behind the back and seek custody of accused. This is not permissible under the law".
He said transcripts of questioning would show whether ED had confronted Chidambaram with documents that it showed in the Delhi High Court, which on August 20 denied anticipatory bail to Chidambaram in the INX Media cases lodged by the CBI and the ED.
Senior advocate A M Singhvi, also appearing for Chidambaram, said the former minister was not evasive during his questioning and has fully co-operated in the probe.
"You (ED) want to arrest me, but for what reason? The answer is -- to humiliate me, to humiliate me and to humiliate me, minute by minute and hour by hour," Singhvi said.
He argued that ED had lodged the case in 2017 whereas the offences alleged are of the period 2007-2008.
Singhvi said penal provisions under which the case has been lodged became "scheduled offences" under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) only after the 2009 amendment and ED cannot do this retrospectively.
"You are trying to paint a person as a kingpin when these alleged offences did not exist at that time," he said, adding that fundamental right of citizens under Article 21 (right to life and personal liberty) cannot be suspended.
On the allegations of Chidambaram being evasive, Singhvi said 12 questions were put to him and though six of them were repetitive, he answered all of them and never said "to hell with you and I would not answer your questions".
"The question put to me (Chidambaram) was do I have a foreign bank account. I said I do not have any foreign bank account. Then another question was asked does your son have any foreign bank account. I said yes and he has taken requisite permission from the RBI for that," he said.
"How does question of evasion arise unless they (ED) want you to give an answer which they want," he said, adding that ED has presented a "completely distorted version" of what evasion is.
Referring to the high court verdict which had used "gravity of offence" to deny anticipatory bail to Chidambaram, Singhvi said 'gravity' is a subjective word and what is grave for someone may not be grave for others.
He said the best test of gravity of an offence is period of sentence prescribed for it and Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) considers sentence of over seven year, including death or life term, as grave and punishment of up to seven year as less grave.
He said that offences alleged against Chidambaram entail a maximum punishment of up to seven years.
Similar allegations are levelled against Karti Chidambaram, son of P Chidambaram, in the INX Media case and he is out on bail, he added.
Singhvi said order granting bail to Karti records that no member of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), which comprised six secretaries of the central government, stated they were either approached or influenced by Karti in any manner to grant FIPB approval to INX Media.
He said Chidambaram was not a 'flight risk' that he may abscond, non co-operation does not mean that a person has to give answer which the probe agency want and there was no question of tampering of any evidence.
"What can I (Chidambaram) tamper in an 11-year-old case? Which document can I tamper? The man was also in power till 2014," he said.
Chidambaram was union minister for finance as also home during the UPA-I and UPA-II government from 2004 to 2014.
CBI had lodged an FIR on May 15, 2017, alleging irregularities in FIPB clearance granted to INX Media group for receiving overseas funds of ₹305 crore in 2007 during Chidambaram's tenure as finance minister. Thereafter, ED lodged a money laundering case.
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