P Chidambaram was finance minister in the UPA-II government
Days after the CBI named the former chief executive of ICICI Bank and others in a loan case, prompting Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to drop subtle hints against the agency's "adventurism and megalomania", former finance minister P Chidambaram today added heft to Mr Jaitley's reading of the situation - but with a slight.
"CBI has received the ultimate certificate from the one who has the best ring-side seat, the Finance Minister (on leave): 'Adventurism and megalomania have overtaken investigators'!" tweeted Mr Chidambaram, who along with his son Karti Chidambaram has been named in chargesheets for alleged money-laundering and approving illegal foreign investments while he was finance minister in the UPA government.
The Chidambarams have denied any wrongdoing, and have accused the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of using the CBI and other probe agencies as tools to harass them.
"Glad that the FM's conscience and legal acumen have finally stirred to condemn the indiscriminate targeting of eminent bankers (in cases where the allegations are about thousands of crores of rupees)," Mr Chidambaram said.
Mr Chidambaram's allusion to "eminent bankers" comes three days after a case was filed against former ICICI Bank chief executive Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar and Videocon chief Venugopal Dhoot for their alleged involved in massive irregularities in obtaining a loan for the Videocon Group.
On Friday, Mr Arun Jaitley, who is recuperating from an illness in the US, wrote a strongly-worded blog against the country's top investigation agency, calling its move "investigative adventurism."
Mr Chidambaram appeared to pick up from where Mr Jaitley left. "They were in slumber when there was indiscriminate targeting of distinguished IAS officers and others (in cases where the allegations are about small sums of money). 'What cause are we serving or actually hurting?' asks the FM. He knows the answer. The cause of justice," Mr Chidambaram said in multiple tweets on Sunday.
The CBI in its FIR had named top faces of industry, including KV Kamath, Sandeep Bakshi, Sonjoy Chatterjee, N S Kannan, Zarin Daruwala and Rajiv Sabharwal among others. K V Kamath is the currently chief of New Development Bank of BRICS while Sandeep Bakhshi is currently MD and CEO at ICICI Bank. Sonjoy Chatterjee is currently CEO of Goldman Sachs India while N S Kannan is currently MD & CEO of ICICI Prudential. Zarin Daruwala heads Standard Chartered Bank in India while Rajiv Sabharwal who left ICICI in 2017 is the current Chief Executive Officer of Tata Capital.