Democracy stands dead in hands of BJP: Surjewala on Chidambaram's arrest

After CBI officials arrested former finance minister P Chidambaram from his residence here, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala called it a "witch-hunt" and "abuse" by the government and agencies allegedly acting on its behest.

"The shameless witch-hunt & unheard of abuse of CBI/ED by Modi Govt 2.0 is playing on every TV screen in India. It's a sham and shame that democracy stands dead in the hands of the BJP," tweeted Surjewala.

On the other hand, Karti Chidambaram son of P Chidambaram while talking to media reporters in Chennai said: "This is a totally politically motivated witch-hunt."

When asked who was behind the development, he snapped back: "Yes, of course, all of this is being done by BJP. Who else? You think Donald Trump? No!"

Karti Chidambaram a co-accused in INX media case is also likely to arrive in the national capital on Thursday morning.

"ED has summoned him a number of times and he has appeared every time. We will go to the court, we will be vindicated eventually," he said.

After over an hour-long high voltage drama today, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials arrested the former Union Minister on an arrest warrant issued by a competent court and took him to the CBI headquarters, CBI sources said.

He was taken away by probe agency officials even as supporters of the former union finance minister raised slogans and tried to stop the officials from taking him away.Karti Chidambaram earlier in a tweet posted that the whole drama was enacted in a bid to "sensationalise and satisfy the voyeuristic pleasure of some".

"The drama and spectacle being enacted by the agencies are to simply sensationalize and satisfy the voyeuristic pleasure of some," tweeted Karti Chidambaram.

A team of CBI and ED officials reached the residence of the former Union Minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram and even resorted to scaling the wall to get inside the premises of his Jor Bagh house in south Delhi.

Chidamabaram had rushed to his residence after a short and crisp address to the media at the AICC headquarters where he said that he believed in the wisdom of judges.

The senior Congress leader in his media address at the AICC headquarters was flanked by senior party leaders Kapil Sibal, Singhvi, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, Mallikarjun Kharge, Salman Khurshid, Vivek Tankha and KC Venugopal.

CBI and ED had earlier today issued a lookout circular against him. Prior to that, the teams visited his residence, apparently to arrest him, but returned empty-handed after they failed to find him there.

Chidambaram faced a major setback on Tuesday when the Delhi High Court dismissed his anticipatory bail plea in corruption and money laundering case related to alleged INX Media scam.

Also today, he failed to get relief from the Supreme Court in the INX Media case as the matter was not heard by the court despite repeated efforts of his lawyer.

( With inputs from ANI )