INX media case: Supreme Court to hear P Chidambaram's bail plea in corruption case today

New Delhi: Former Union finance minister P Chidambaram’s bail plea in the INX Media corruption case will come up for hearing before the Supreme Court on Friday. [caption id=“attachment_7323211” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Congress leader P Chidambaram. PTI[/caption] The matter has been listed for hearing before a bench of justices R Banumathi and Hrishikesh Roy. Chidambaram (74), who held the finance as well as the home portfolios in the UPA government from 2004 to 2014, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from his Jor Bagh residence in Delhi on August 21 in connection with the case. He is presently lodged in Tihar jail under judicial custody, which was extended till 17 October by a court in Delhi on Thursday. A bench headed by Justice Banumathi had, on 5 September, denied anticipatory bail to Chidambaram in the INX Media money laundering case lodged by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The senior Congress leader has moved the apex court seeking bail in the corruption case and has challenged the Delhi High Court’s September 30 verdict rejecting his bail plea. The CBI had registered an FIR on 15 May, 2017, alleging irregularities in the FIPB clearance granted to the INX Media group for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 during Chidambaram’s tenure as finance minister. Thereafter, the ED had lodged a money-laundering case in this regard in the same year.