Chidambaram arrested: CBI, ED are revenge seeking departments, says Congress

In an unprecedented turn of events, the Congress stalwart was taken away by CBI in a vehicle around 9:45 PM last night.

To arrest Chidambaram, CBI officials scaled walls of his residence as almost the entire media of the country watched.

Chidambaram is accused of facilitating FDI for INX Media, a company founded by Indrani and Peter Mukerjea, when he was the FM in UPA era.

The manner in which he was arrested miffed Congress, for obvious reasons. To note, Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi were with Chidambaram when he was taken away.

Speaking on the arrest, Congress' Anand Sharma told IE, "These visuals will shock the democratic world that India can allow this to happen with state support."

He called Chidambaram a law-abiding citizen.

Further, Sharma added bail is Chidambaram's right. "Denial of bail is an exception. There are umpteen judgments of the Supreme Court. What has happened is a travesty of justice. The objective is to humiliate him," he said.

Sharma likened Chidambaram's arrest to an "action movie and arrest of a terrorist".

"It was most disgraceful. Those were unsavory images in a democratic country," he said.

The report added Congress believed it was important to dispel the notion that Chidambaram was "hiding".

After his anticipatory bail plea was denied by Delhi High Court, Chidambaram had gone incommunicado of sorts, only to make an appearance at Congress HQ on Wednesday evening.

"A narrative was sought to be built that Chidambaram was hiding and was running away from the law," a leader said.

Notably, top leaders of Congress Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, Sibal, and Singhvi met at Ahmed Patel's residence where the decision to address press was taken.

Singhvi said Chidambaram has always turned up for questioning whenever he was summoned.

He said calling Chidambaram an "absconder" was unfair as he waited for SC's decision the entire day, addressed press, and walked towards his home calmly.