On June 30, 2011, Mr P Chidambaram, the Home Minister at the time, was a special guest as then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the new Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) headquarters in Delhi. 21 August 2019, scenario has completely changed. Former Union Home and Finance Minister Chidambaram was arrested by CBI and brought to this complex. Hours after the dramatic arrest of former Union Minister P Chidambaram, a video that was in wide circulation showed him at the opening of the very building where he was kept in custody last night – the CBI headquarters in central Delhi.

Underscoring the irony of Mr Chidambaram’s arrest by the agency that once reported to him, the senior leader is seen on the stage along with colleagues like Kapil Sibal and Veerappa Moily.

In CBI new headquarter the visitor’s book has a handwritten note by him:  “Having worked closely with the CBI in different capacities since 1985, I am proud to see this organization acquire its new ‘home’. May India’s premier investigating agency grow from strength to strength and be a strong pillar of our administrative system.”

Later in that function, all the ministers were taken on a tour of the centrally air-conditioned building and even shown the lock-up facilities on the ground floor, which is dubbed the guest-house; Mr Chidambaram spent last night in one of those lock-up suites, specifically, No. 3. There were two guards outside his room

He was not questioned last night after he was brought to the building following his dramatic arrest from home. The interrogation started this morning, after he was allowed home-cooked food and a change of clothes.

Mr Chidambaram is being investigated over allegations that he facilitated foreign investment in a television company, INX Media, in 2007, when he was Finance Minister, at the instance of his son Karti Chidambaram, who allegedly received kickbacks.

Mr Chidambaram and his son were named by INX co-founders Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, who are currently in jail in connection with the murder of Indrani Mukerjea’s daughter Sheena Bora.

Earlier The former Union Finance Minister, not seen since Tuesday evening, was arrested 90 minutes after he made a surprise appearance at a Congress press conference on Wednesday evening. P Chidambaram went to National Congress’s central office. Where he attained a Press Conference. He told, “If I am asked to choose between life and liberty, I shall unhesitatingly choose liberty,” Mr Chidambaram said at the press conference, flanked by senior colleagues.

Even as lawyers for P Chidambaram made vehement requests, Justice NV Ramana on Wednesday declined to issue any order on the petition filed by the former Union minister.

“How can I hear the matter without it getting listed? We cannot do anything beyond it,” the judge told senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, who was pleading for a protection from arrest till the Supreme Court takes up Chidambaram’s petition for hearing.

But on August 16, Justice Ramana, who happens to be the most senior judge to hear the mentioning while the CJI sits in the Ayodhya Constitution Bench, did pass an order in a case which was yet to be listed.

In a case relating to Bhushan Steel’s former chief financial officer and director Nittin Johari, Justice Ramana passed an order, staying the Delhi High Court.

The case, filed by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) had not been listed but the judge did pass an order upon a mentioning made by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

While the SFIO had arrested Johri for alleged fraudulent activities, including filing false documents with various banks, the Delhi High Court granted bail to him on August 14, noting “the broad probabilities of this case justify release of petitioner (on bail).”

SFIO, though the SG, moved the Supreme Court against this order on August 16, and a mentioning was made before Justice Ramana, who passed an order even though the matter was not listed at that point of time.

Justice Ramana took into account the submission that Johri was likely to fly abroad and stayed his bail.

“Upon being urgent mentioning of the matter by the learned Solicitor General appearing for the petitioner – Serious Fraud Investigation Office, this matter was taken on board today. List the matter on Tuesday, the 20th August, 2019 before an appropriate Bench. Till such time, the impugned order of the High Court is stayed,” Justice Ramana’s order said.

On Wednesday, Sibal sought to remind Justice Ramana of this order when the judge indicated that he cannot protect Chidambaram in the interim by staying the Delhi High Court order.

Sibal told the judge that he could pass a similar order in Chidambaram’s case also but Justice Ramana declined his plea. “That was a different case. He was going abroad,” said Justice Ramana, snubbing the plea to grant interim protection from arrest to Chidambaram.