File Picture
Senior Congress leader and Former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram told the Supreme Court that he should not be sent to Delhi’s Tihar Jail as he is 74 and should be protected. He should be placed under house arrest, said Kapil Sibal, representing Chidambaram, who has spent 11 days in BI custody since his arrest on August 21.
After arguments, the court ordered CBI custody for the Congress leader till Thursday.
“There must be some protection to Chidambaram. He is 74 years old. Let him be put under house arrest and not to Tihar Jail,” Kapil Sibal, a senior Congress leader, said in the Supreme Court.
In CBI custody, Chidambaram has been put up in a “suite” at the guest-house floor of the CBI headquarters in Delhi.
The top court said the former finance minister, arrested by the CBI in a corruption case, should apply for regular bail before the competent court.
“You can’t humiliate people like this,” Sibal argued, wondering what would happen if the trial court rejected the request and sent him to jail.
The court said house arrest was an option only for political prisoners. The judges, R Banumathi and AS Bopanna, also questioned why Chidambaram was not making the request before the special CBI court, which has to decide on his custody.
