The past 48 hours have been nothing but dramatic for ex-Finance Minister P Chidambaram. His anticipatory bail plea in connection with the INX Media case, in which he and his son Karti are the accused, was rejected by the Delhi High Court on Tuesday, following which the apex court refused to urgently hear the matter on Wednesday and grant interim protection to him. All of this resulted in the senior Congress leader going incognito from Tuesday evening onward with the CBI and the ED searching high and low for him, but to no avail.
Late on Wednesday evening, the untraceable Chidambaram—flanked by Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Kapil Sibal—appeared at the Congress’s Delhi headquarters to make a statement to members of the press. He pointed out that there was no chargesheet in the INX Media case, as well as the fact that his name was not mentioned in the CBI’s FIR. “Liberty is more important than freedom,” he remarked. “I was aghast that I was accused of hiding from the law … I was pursuing the law.”
