Former Indian Finance Minister in custody

Former minister accused of facilitating foreign investment into television company allegedly involved in money laundering

By Shuriah Niazi

NEW DELHI, India (AA) - An arrested former finance minister and senior opposition leader in India is set to be tried in a special court on Thursday after having been arrested the previous night for his alleged role in a money-laundering case involving income to a local television network.

Arrested by the country's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), P Chidambaram is accused of facilitating foreign investment into INX Media while finance minister in 2007. He was questioned for roughly three hours at the CBI headquarters.

The agency is expected to ask for maximum custody -- 14 days -- for Chidambaram's interrogation, said the local Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency.

Meanwhile, the opposition Indian National Congress accused the government of using the CBI and anti-economic crime agency Enforcement Directorate as "personal revenge-seeking departments".

"Over the last two days India witnessed the broad daylight murder of democracy as also the rule of law," Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala told PTI.

He asserted that the senior politician was arrested without any legal basis while many accused in the same case walk free.

Kaynak:

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