A Delhi court on Tuesday extended the protection from arrest to former Union Minister P. Chidambaram till July 10 in the Aircel-Maxis case.
Special Judge O.P. Saini extended the protection when counsel for the Enforcement Directorate sought more time to file reply to his anticipatory bail application.
The court had last month directed the Directorate not to take any coercive action till June 5 against him.
Justice Saini had passed the direction when Kapil Sibal, counsel for Mr. Chidambaram, arguring for his anticipatory bail, submitted that the applicant was ready to join the investigation as and when he was called by the the Directorate.
“In view of the above submission, put up the application [for anticipatory bail] on 05.06.2018 as prayed. Applicant/accused is directed to join the investigation as and when called...,’’ Mr. Saini said in his two-page order. However, till then, no coercive action shall be taken against him.
The same order will continue till July 10.
The bail application filed through advocate P.K. Dubey has urged the court to “direct that the applicant/accused is released on bail in the event of his arrest in relation to the enforcement case investigation report (ECIR) /05/DZ/2012 registered by the respondent (Directorate) relating to Aircel-Maxis case...”
All the evidence in the case appeared to be documentary in nature and they were already in the possession of the ED and the CBI.
The documentary evidence itself was in the form of files in the Ministry of Finance which were currently in the safe and secure possession of the Centre. As such, there was no possibility of the applicant being able to tamper with the evidence, Also, no recovery was to be made from Mr. Chidambaram, the application said