Is P Chidambaram paying for the arrest of Amit Shah in 2010?

CBI judge A.K. Kuhar, who sent the former Union Home Minister and three-time Union Finance Minister of India, P. Chidambaram, to CBI custody for four days felt the charges against him are serious requiring further investigations and Chidambaram’s custodial interrogation. We all know what custodial interrogation implies.

The CBI claims, on the strength of supposed disclosures made by former part owner of INX news channel, Indrani Mukherjea, facing trial in the alleged murder of her daughter, while in jail, about her financial affairs, implicating the former Union Finance Minister and his son and current Congress MP from Tamil Nadu, Karti Chidambaram.

And while she is still facing trial for killing her own daughter, she has been let out on bail, following her supposed revelations implicating Chidambaram and his son. She has been made approver by the CBI putting a question mark on the fairness and objectivity of the caged parrots - CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Curiously, the ED officer handling the case, Rakesh Ahuja, was sent back to Delhi Police from where he had been posted on deputation, immediately after Chidambaram’s arrest.

Meanwhile, the buzz in the right-wing media circles is that Chidambaram is getting back what he dished out to current Union Home Minister Amit Shah while he was India’s Union Home Minister from November, 2008 till July, 2012.

Chidambaram had to revert to the Finance portfolio, following the then Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s candidature for the presidential election.

It is true that the premium central investigating agencies, lying virtually dormant despite the UPA rule at the Centre since 2004, became active and started probing the alleged fake encounter cases where the needle of suspicion pointed at then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, his favourite team of officers like D G Vanzara and his then Home Minister Amit Shah. In particular, two cases attracted media attention.

One was the fake encounter of a local thug by the name of Sohrabuddin Sheikh who was allegedly the contract killer of Modi’s bete noire and one time Home Minister in the Keshubhai Patel government, Haren Pandya.

The other was the killing of a young Mumbai girl by the name of Ishrat Jehan. She came from a poor background and was the sole bread winner for her family.

Amit Shah had to resign from the ministry and was arrested by the CBI in July, 2010 and the court, after releasing him on bail in that fake encounter case, had strictly prohibited the current Union Home Minister from entering his home state of Gujarat and even shifted the trial from Gandhinagar to Mumbai.

The glee of the right-wing keyboard warriors at Chidambaram’s predicament knows no bounds. A tweet by one Akhil Rabadiya reads like this: “My Heart Bleeds whenever I see this Pic of #Amitshah. Below is the old file photo of Amit Shah’s arrest in Gandhinagar and alongside the photo of Chidamabaram being transported after arrest by CBI officers.

The message reads further: “Chiddu Falsely Charged and got Him arrested When Congress was Ruling But Today seeing this pics of #Chidambaram Arrested all I can say is Karma Gives you Back.”

Another tweet by one Ram Reddy Andem concurs with Rabadiya, saying: “Yes, Absolutely correct, Tit for Tat…. this arrest must be only a beginning…”

Last night at the Press Club of India, there was no dearth of right-wing journalists, rejoicing at Chidambaram’s arrest, saying how he has got back what he did to Amit Shah. A Dainik Jagran reporter even dug up the Ishrat Jehan case to cast aspersions on Chidambaram, saying he even tried to implicate IB officers in that case.

It is worth recalling that the role of senior IB officer Rajendra Kumar, posted then in Ahmedabad, came under the scanner for allegedly providing the firearm with which the fake encounter was reportedly carried out.

As for Amit Shah and the Sohrabuddin case, it extends right up to the death of Justice B H Loya amid mysterious circumstances who was hearing the Sohrabuddin case in which Shah was the accused.

The Supreme Court deliberately brushed it under the carpet and our current Chief Justice of India, along with three others, questioned how the court was refusing to allow a genuine probe into the alleged killing of judge Loya. It turns out that Chidambaram is paying not for his sins but for having taken on fearlessly those who now rule India.