‘Attempt to Silence Most Vocal Critic’: Karti Slams Centre for Chidambaram’s Arrest, Denies Meeting Peter & Indrani

A day after the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested former Union finance and home minister P. Chidambaram in the INX Media case, his son Karti Chidambaram, the Congress MP for Sivaganga, called the arrest an attempt to silence one of the government’s most vocal critics.

The arrest

P. Chidambaram was arrested at his home in New Delhi on the night of 21 August 2019, after the Delhi High Court rejected his plea for anticipatory bail. He had not been seen publicly for more than a day before he appeared at the Congress headquarters to address the media; CBI officers then went to his residence and, in widely broadcast scenes, scaled its wall to enter. The case concerned the clearance given by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board in 2007, when he was finance minister, for overseas investment in INX Media, a company founded by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea.

What Karti Chidambaram said

Speaking in Delhi on 22 August, Karti Chidambaram called the action a politically motivated witch hunt aimed at his father and at the Congress, and said that if the agencies had evidence they should file a charge sheet. He said he had never met Peter or Indrani Mukerjea and had no connection with their company, and that his own assets were declared in his statutory filings. He thanked the Congress and Rahul Gandhi for their support.

What happened next

P. Chidambaram spent 106 days in custody, first with the CBI and then with the Enforcement Directorate, before the Supreme Court granted him bail on 4 December 2019. Karti Chidambaram was re-elected from Sivaganga in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

See also: every current member of the Lok Sabha.

Originally published on 22 August 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026, with the background and what happened next added.

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