P Chidambaram being 'shamefully hunted down', 'we stand by him': Priyanka Gandhi Vadra

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra came out in support of senior party leader and former Union Minister P Chidambaram. Priyanka took to Twitter to slam the ruling government’s vendetta politics and said that the party backs him in his fight. “An extremely qualified and respected member of the Rajya Sabha, 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,” Priyanka said on micro-blogging site. “…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,” she further said.

An extremely qualified and respected member of the Rajya Sabha, @PChidambaram_IN 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,
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— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) August 21, 2019

Priyanka’s tweet came ahead of hearing of Chidambaram’s anticipatory bail plea at the Supreme Court. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal had said that as Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi will be sitting in the Constitution bench for hearing the Ayodhya case, the petition is to be mentioned at 10:30 am before the senior-most judge, who is not on the Constitution bench. Chidambaram and a battery of his lawyers were in hectic discussions after the Delhi High Court dismissed his anticipatory bail plea in the INX media scam. Senior advocates Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Salman Khurshid rushed to the apex court following the high court order. Senior advocate Dayan Krishnan, who was arguing the case in the high court, also joined the discussions.

On Tuesday, 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 a six-member CBI team issued a notice to him asking him to appear before the investigation officer "within two hours", after failing to find him at his residence. Soon after the CBI team returned empty hand, an Enforcement Directorate team also reached his Jor Bagh residence in Delhi.

The CBI had registered an FIR on May 15, 2017, alleging 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 finance minister. Thereafter, the ED lodged a money laundering case in this regard in 2018.