Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP P Chidambaram arrived at the Parliament on Thursday, a day after he was granted bail by the Supreme Court in the INX Media money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
As soon as he arrived, Chidambaram joined a protest in the Parliament premises over rising prices of onion.
Meanwhile, Chidambaram will address the media at the Congress headquarters in Delhi later today.
On Wednesday evening at around 8 pm, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram walked out of the Tihar jail and met Congress president Sonia Gandhi at her residence.
While in jail, Chidambaram was visited by the top Congress brass, including Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former party chief Rahul Gandhi and his sister and party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
“I am happy that Supreme Court has passed an order granting bail and I am happy that I have stepped out and breathing the air of freedom after 106 days,” he said after being released from jail.
He said that there was not a “single charge framed against him” in the last 106 days.
“But the fact is in the 106 days of pretrial incarceration not a single charge was framed against me. I will speak all about that tomorrow (Thursday),” the senior Congress leader said.
Granting him bail, the top court said that Chidambaram should not tamper with the evidence and not influence the witnesses. The court further ordered him not to give press interviews or make public statements in connection with the case.
The Supreme Court also directed P Chidambaram to furnish a bail bond of Rs 2 lakhs along with two sureties of the same amount. Chidambaram has also been ordered not to travel abroad without the court’s permission.
Chidambaram was first arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on August 21 in the INX Media corruption case and was granted bail by the Supreme Court on October 22. His arrest came after the Delhi High Court rejected his pre-arrest bail. He was in between arrested by the ED in the money laundering case on October 16.
Congress veteran Chidambaram is under probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and ED over alleged irregularities in the FIPB clearance granted to INX Media for receiving overseas funds of Rs 305 crore in 2007 during his tenure as Union Finance Minister.