Indian police probing graft case arrest son of former finance minister Chidambaram

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian federal police arrested the son of former finance minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday, but the agency which has been investigating suspected criminal misconduct related to approvals of investment deals, did not reveal the charges.

Karti Chidambaram was detained at the airport in the southern city of Chennai and will be appear in court later in the day, Abhishek Dayal, spokesman of the Central Bureau of Investigation said.

“The reasons for the arrest will be provided in the court.”

P. Chidambaram, 72, served twice as finance minister in the Congress-led coalition that ran India for a decade, from 2004-08 and then from 2012 until the party’s election defeat at the hands of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in May 2014.

He has been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and current Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted that the Modi government was continuing its “vendetta” against Chidambaram, and called the arrest a diversionary tactic to hide “scams and colossal corruption”.

In May, police raided the homes of Chidambaram and his son as part of the probe into approvals of foreign investment proposals.