By Anand Singh
New Delhi, Aug 22 (IANS) CBI Deputy Superintendent of Police R. Parthasarathy, who scaled the six-foot-high boundary wall of former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s residence to arrest him on Wednesday night, is the same officer who arrested his son in February 2018 from the Chennai airport.
On February 28, Parthasarathy and his team arrested Karti Chidambaram when he returned from abroad. According to CBI officials, when Parthasarathy moved to arrest him, the junior Chidambaram allegedly threatened the agency team. “‘How you can touch me? Do you know, who I am…’ were the words that Karti told the CBI officers,” a senior CBI official told IANS.
The official said that despite the threats, Parthasarathy and his team remained calm.
Contrasting the events of last year and now, he said that when Karti Chidambaram was produced in the court, he used to tell the CBI officers that they would not be able to prove anything against him and he would be out of their clutches in a few days.
“But Parthasarathy remained calm and composed inside the courtroom and went ahead with his investigation,” he said.
The official said when the CBI team used to take Karti Chidambaram to court from the agency’s headquarters, he used to free his hand and wave to waiting media persons.
After remaining out of media coverage for almost one and half years, Parthasarathy again made a comeback on Wednesday night, as the 5 feet, 6 inch tall CBI official scaled the wall of the elder Chidambaram’s residence in upscale Jor Bagh area here after finding the gates locked.
After remaining inside the Congress leader’s residence for about half an hour, Parthasarathy left with Chidambaram seated next to him in a SUV for the agency’s headquarters.
The CBI official said: “In the INX Media case, it is Parthasarathy, who made a watertight case against the Chidambarams. First it was Karti Chidambaram and now is his father P. Chidambaram.
“Despite the confidence shown by Karti Chidambaram that he shall be out within few days, he was in CBIs and the Enforcement Directorate custody and judicial custody for almost 23 days.
“And now, despite a battery of senior lawyers defending P. Chidambaram in the court, he has been sent to the agency’s custody till Monday that shows the watertight case made by the team of Parthasarathy,” he said.
About Parthasarathy, the agency official said: “He is a very shy kind of person and dedicated to his work.”
Chidambaram was arrested on Wednesday night in connection with alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds of Rs 305 crore in 2007, at a time when he was Finance Minister under the UPA-1 government. The CBI has registered a case in the matter on May 2017, and on the basis of the CBI case, the ED also filed a case of money laundering.
(Anand Singh can be contacted at [email protected])
–IANS
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