New Delhi: After 105 days in custody, former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram walked Wednesday night out of Tihar jail hours after the Supreme Court granted him bail in a money laundering case linked to the INX Media with some conditions like restraining the senior Congress leader from talking to the media about the case.
Chidambaram, 74, stepped out of Gate no 3 of the prison at 8.10pm to a rapturous welcome by hundreds of Congress supporters. His son Karti was on hand to receive the Congress veteran.
Dressed in his trademark long-sleeved white shirt and dhoti, the former Union Minister, whose custody entered the 106th day Wednesday with most of the time spent behind bars, was surrounded by a posse of newsmen and photographers before he was taken in a car to his Jor Bagh home.
Asked to comment on his release, a calm and composed Chidambaram, a Rajya Sabha MP, said he cannot comment on the case and will obey the Supreme Court order but hastened to forcefully add that not a single charge has been framed against him.
“The fact is that after 106 days of pre-trial incarceration there is not a single charge framed against me as I speak now,” said Chidambaram, who is expected to attend the Rajya Sabha proceedings Thursday. The Congress leader said he will talk more Thursday.
“I am very happy that my father is coming home. It has been a long wait, it has been an unwanted incarceration. I am very grateful that the Supreme Court has given him bail,” Karti told reporters. Chidambaram’s wife Nalini, who is a senior lawyer, said she was ‘happy’ that he got the bail.
Chidambaram would have to join further investigations if asked by the probe agency is one of the conditions set by the apex court.
News that the senior leader would finally be returning home led to relief in the Congress camp, but also triggered a political row with the BJP.
“Truth finally prevails #SatyamevaJayate,” the party tweeted from its official handle.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said Chidambaram’s incarceration was ‘vengeful and vindictive’.
“I’m glad that the SC has granted him bail. I’m confident that he will be able to prove his innocence in a fair trial,” Rahul said in a tweet.
