CBI did not handle PC's arrest with "finesse"

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

CBI did not handle PC's arrest with "finesse"

Veteran CBI officials surprised

Harish Gupta 

New Delhi, Aug 21 

The CBI neither showed maturity nor "finesse" in handling the arrest of former Home & finance Minister P Chidambaram after the day-long drama from his Jor Bagh residence tonight.

P Chidambaram had already reached at his residence after addressing the press conference at the AICC at 8 pm and obviously waited for the CBI team to land up there to hand-over the arrest warrants or detention. Within an hour, three dozen CBI officers landed there without realising that Jor Bagh has narrow lanes particularly where Chidambaram's house is located. Hundreds of media persons and congress workers had already surrounded the 115A house. The CBI team found it extremely difficult to even reach at the gate and make the guard open the door. the guard was scared to even open the door as massive crowds were there. 

The CBI men jumped the wall and great difficulty in understanding the situation. The local police was not called to help out the crowd management. M L Sharma, special Director CBI said there was no "finesse" in agency's handling of the arresting a person like P Chidambaram. He said that the senior officials should have assessed the situation and handled with some maturity. This does not put anybody in good light.

He also blamed Chidambaram for not behaving with finesse either as he was there to surrender.  Another former top CBI official also said that it had never happened in the history of the CBI that a person of such a stature allegedly  involved in a corruption case has been handled like this. There was no need for such a high-drama from either side. But CBI should have done better preparations. It shows very poorly on handling sensitive issues.

Even the way former CBI director Alok Verma was raided midnight in his office and residence was avoidable.

Its Quirk Of Fate, Past returns to Haunt Chidambaram

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Its Quirk Of Fate, Past returns to Haunt Chidambaram

PC had put Shah behind bars in 2010

Harish Gupta

New Delhi, Aug 21

It seems the past has returned to haunt former Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and life has come full circle for him.

He may have been smiling on July 25, 2010 when Amit Shah was arrested by the CBI in Gandhinagar in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case in Gandhinagar. Shah who was a Minister of State for Home under the Narendra Modi government in Gujrat, was desperately wanted by the CBI. But he chose to elude the agency for four days then and the same media haunted him. Finally, Amit Shah decided to surrender after resigning from the Modi government following a charge sheet being filed against him. He was produced before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate A Y Dave. Surprisingly, the CBI did not press for custody of Shah, who has been charged with murder, extortion, kidnapping and five other sections under IPC for the killing of Sohrabuddin and his wife Kausar Bi in 2005. He was remanded by the magistrate in judicial custody for 13 days till August 7 and taken to Sabarmati jail in Ahmedabad.

"I have full faith in the judiciary and I am sure the allegations against me will be cleared by the courts," Shah had said immediately prior to his arrest. Shah had also claimed that he was innocent and said that charges against him were "fabricated, politically motivated and were on the instruction of Congress government" and demanded that his entire questioning by the CBI should be video-graphed.

But none of his pleas were heard as the UPA regime in North Block under P Chidambaram was determined to send him to jail and went after Modi then.

As the luck would have it, Shah kept getting one relief after the other from the courts .

Now the life has come full circle. Today, Amit Shah is occupying the same seat in North Block's Home Minister's office which was once held by Chidambaram.

Today, Chidambaram is eluding arrest from the enforcement agencies and knocking at the doors of the courts for one relief or the other.

It nothing but a quirk of fate that nine years later personalities are same but roles have been reversed. Today Chidambaram is facing the music and Shah must be smiling. Interestingly, none of the cases in which Chidambaram is wanted, relate to Shah's ministry.

Fly on the Wall : Why Govt. going after Chidambarams

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Why Govt. going after Chidambarams 

It is no secret that the entire government machinery is going after P Chidambaram (PC)  and his son Karti in a big way. The INX Media case against Karti was of 2006-08 vintage when PC was the Finance Minister during his first stint.