Bail granted to India's former finance minister in Corruption case

Palaniappan Chidambaram India's former Finance Minister from the Congress party granted bail and released from jail 106 days after his arrest on corruption charges.

Chidambaram, 73, a political veteran was directed to submit a bond of 200,000 rupees ($2,800), not make any public statements on the issue, and to surrender his passport.

Sanjay Jha, the spokesperson of Congress party, accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of a "malicious propaganda campaign" against Chidambaram.

"It is a case of political vendetta where the probe agencies and prosecutors have intentionally harassed him and dragged the case on although Mr Chidambaram had willingly made himself accessible all these years," he said.

The Congress party - which embraced the court decision, tweeting: "Truth finally prevails" - had described Chidambaram's arrest in August by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India's equivalent to the FBI, as a "shameless witch-hunt" by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.

Chidambaram, a prosperous lawyer from a land-owning family from southern Tamil Nadu state, served twice as finance minister and once as a home minister during Manmohan Singh's 2004-14 tenure as prime minister.

He is accused of taking bribes, money-laundering and of illegally approving the acquisition of a telecommunications firm by a Malaysian company, allegations he denies.