NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on former finance minister P Chidambaram’s bail plea in the INX Media case.
A bench headed by Justice R Banumathi issued the notice to CBI and directed it to reply by October 14 and slated the hearing for October 15.
The Congress leader, who is presently lodged in jail in judicial custody, has moved the apex court challenging the Delhi High Court's September 30 verdict dismissing his bail plea in the case.
On Monday, the high court had rejected his bail petition, saying the investigation was at an advanced stage and his influencing the witnesses cannot be ruled out and had dismissed the bail petition with hard-hitting remarks that it cannot be disputed that if the case is proved against Chidambaram, the offence is on society, economy, financial stability and integrity of the country.
Chidambaram is not a flight risk and there is no chance of tampering with evidence but he can influence the witnesses if granted bail, it had said.
Chidambaram, 74, is in custody since his arrest by the CBI on August 21.
The high court, in its bail order, had said that from the material it seemed that FIPB Unit prepared a proposal for FDI of Rs 4.62 crore, about 46.21 per cent of the equity and the same was passed granting approval to INX Media.
However, instead of Rs 4.62 crore, INX Media brought FDI of Rs 403 crore without any approval for the same, it had noted.
The CBI had registered an FIR on May 15, 2017, alleging irregularities in the FIPB clearance granted to the INX 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 2017.