Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday morning jumped to the defence of her party colleague P Chidambaram who is facing imminent arrest after the Delhi High Court on Tuesday rejected his anticipatory bail petition in the INX Media corruption and money laundering cases. In a tweet, Priyanka said that Chidambaram is being punished for speaking the truth and exposing the failures of the Modi government.
The Congress leader said that Chidambaram has served the country with loyalty for long as Finance minister and Home minister. She said that the entire Congress party stands with him and in the fight for the truth.
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“An extremely qualified and respected member of the Rajya Sabha, P Chidambaram has served our nation with loyalty for decades including as Finance Minister and 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,” she said.
“We stand by him and will continue to fight for the truth no matter what the consequences are,” Priyanka tweeted.
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday refused to grant relief to Chidambaram from the CBI and ED as the court dismissed his anticipatory bail plea, saying prima facie he appeared to be the kingpin of the alleged scam. The CBI and ED teams then reached the senior Congress leader’s Jor bagh residence in the evening but he didn’t show up. Later, the CBI pasted a notice at the Congress leader’s residence, asking him to appear before the agency within two hours. The CBI on Wednesday morning again visited the former Finance minister’s residence, but he was unavailable.
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.
2/2— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) August 21, 2019
Soon after Chidambaram’s plea was rejected by the Delhi High Court, a battery of Congress lawyers including Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Salman Khurshid moved the Supreme Court seeking urgent mention of a plea, contesting the Delhi High Court’s order. However, they were told by the registrar (judicial) to mention the petition on Wednesday morning in the apex court.
The CBI had registered an FIR on May 15, 2017, alleging irregularities in the FIPB clearance granted to INX Media for receiving overseas funds of Rs 305 crore in 2007 during Chidambaram’s tenure as the Finance minister. Thereafter, the ED lodged a money laundering case in this regard in 2018.
