INX Media Case: P Chidambaram was sent to Delhi's TiharJail on Thursday.
A group of Congress leaders were not allowed to meet former Finance Minister P Chidamabram who was sent to Delhi's Tihar Jail on Thursday. The veteran Congress leader was sent to jail after a Delhi court on Thursday ordered that he be sent to judicial custody in the INX Media case.
A delegation of Congress leaders including Mukul Wasnik, PC Chacko, Manikkam Tagore and Avinash Pandey who went to Tihar Jail were told that the allotted time to meet Mr Chidambaram was over. They spoke to the Jail Superintendent.
One of the members said that they went on the instructions of Congress president Sonia Gandhi to show solidarity with Mr Chidambaram.
Mr Chidambaram is lodged in Jail number seven, Ward nine of Tihar Jail which is Asia's largest prison complex. Since he has Z-level security, the CBI court agreed to his lawyer Kapil Sibal's request for special facilities. These include a separate cell, a cot (prisoners usually sleep on the floor), a bathroom with western-style facilities, security and medicines.
Like other inmates, Mr Chidambaram will also have access to the prison's library and can watch television for a specified period of time.
Mr Chidambaram, 74, was brought to the prison from the Rouse Avenue Court amid high security. It took nearly 35 minutes for the jail authorities to bring Mr Chidambaram to the prison from the court. Mr Chidambaram was seen in visuals sitting alone in the van, waving at the media through a barred window, a smile firmly in place.
The CBI accuses Mr Chidambaram of misusing his position as Finance Minister of the country in 2007 while facilitating a huge infusion of foreign funds in INX Media at the instance of his son Karti Chidambaram.
Mr Chidambaram and his Karti were named by INX Media co-founders Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, who are currently jailed in Mumbai in connection with the murder of Indrani's daughter Sheena Bora.
The Enforcement Directorate has filed money-laundering charges in the same case.
(With inputs from ANI)