Stalin condemns Chidambaram's arrest, calls it 'a matter of shame for India'

Calling Congress leader P Chidambaram's arrest 'political vendetta', DMK chief MK Stalin on Thursday condemned the incident and said it is a matter of shame for India.

"I too saw how CBI jumped the wall and arrested him, it is a matter of shame for India. It is a political vendetta. Chidambaram had asked for anticipatory bail but he was arrested. It is condemnable," he said.

Chidambaram, one of the key ministers during ten years of UPA regime, was taken to headquarters of the probe agency after CBI officials scaled the boundary walls of his residence in Jor Bagh on Wednesday night to arrest him in INX Media case.

CBI, which issued a lookout notice against Chidambaram arrested him after he made a dramatic appearance at the Congress headquarters in Delhi and addressed a press conference in which he rejected the charges against him and his son in the INX Media case and said "lies" were being spread by "pathological liars."

On Wednesday, the former minister failed to get relief from the Supreme Court over CBI and ED's pursuit of him as the matter was not heard by the court despite repeated efforts of his lawyers.

CBI sources said that Chidambaram was arrested on an arrest warrant issued by a competent court.

The CBI and ED filed caveats in the Supreme Court over Chidambaram's plea seeking protection from arrest in the INX media case.

The CBI had on late Tuesday night put up a notice outside his residence to appear before them in two hours prompting his lawyer to request the investigation agency not to take any coercive action until the hearing of Chidambaram's plea in the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The Congress leader's lawyers had moved the apex court against Tuesday's Delhi High Court order dismissing his anticipatory bail plea regarding cases filed by the CBI and the ED related to the alleged INX Media scam.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta opposed the plea of Chidambaram and said this is a case of money laundering of monumental magnitude.

( With inputs from ANI )