Over 5K signatories to petition for protecting Chidambaram's 'fundamental right of liberty'

New Delhi: Over 5,000 people including senior Congress leaders have signed a petition to protect the "fundamental right of liberty" of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who is lodged in Tihar Jail since September 5 for alleged corruption in the INX Media case.

The citizens in their petition have claimed that the INX Media case is "bogus" and said it has been a month since Chidambaram's arrest by the CBI but it is yet to file a charge sheet in the case. Among the leaders who have signed the petition include Shashi Tharoor and Karti Chidambaram. The TN Congress Committee has urged people to sign the petition and has put out a tweet in this regard.

The petition said the alleged crime dates back to 2007 in granting FDI proposals to a company called INX Media but the FIR was registered in 2017 after 10 years. "Till date the CBI has not been able to provide a single piece of concrete evidence against Mr P Chidambaram.

The INX proposal was first examined by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) that includes several senior officials and was headed by the then finance secretary, was signed by 11 other officials without any dissent note and was cleared along with several other proposals of foreign investment. "So far none of the officials has been arrested in this case and none of the officers has said anything against Mr Chidambaram," it said.

According to the signatories, the CBI arrested Chidambaram only to "satisfy few people in the government" and termed the action as "nothing but vendetta politics" by the ruling BJP. "Mr P Chidambaram who is a senior citizen and a former Union cabinet minister is not being treated well in the prison. He was even denied a chair and pillow. Its really sad that Mr P Chidambaram is being denied his fundamental right to liberty on the grounds of a case that has no basis but has been built by a propaganda machinery which relies on the usual tools of gossip, innuendo and false conjenctures," the petition claimed.

"Let us protest against vendetta politics and fight for developmental and positive governance. Mr P Chidambaram is a legendary expert and a visionary leader. Stalwarts like him should be nurtured and utilised at this time of great distress to the economy ...," the petition also stated.