The Supreme Court will hear P. Chidambaram’s petition challenging his arrest by the CBI in a corruption investigation.

The senior Congress leader’s five-day CBI custody ends on Monday. His previous petition challenging the denial of protection from arrest in the INX Media case doesn’t stand after his arrest on Wednesday.

The Delhi High Court had denied his request for anticipatory bail on Tuesday, after which the senior Congress leader was arrested by the CBI.

Yesterday, a special court sent Mr Chidambaram to CBI custody for five days, saying it was “justified” and the “enormity of the alleged money” required an in-depth probe.

Mr Chidambaram had approached the Supreme Court on Wednesday for an urgent hearing, but repeated attempts by his lawyers to get a hearing on the same day failed and the case was scheduled for Friday. The same evening, he was arrested from his home in south Delhi amid high drama.

Mr Chidambaram has been accused of facilitating, as the country’s Finance Minister, a huge infusion of foreign funds into a television company, INX Media, in 2007 at the instance of his son Karti Chidambaram, who allegedly received bribe for his role.

Mr Chidambaram has denied any wrongdoing.

Mr Chidambaram was questioned for three hours at the CBI headquarters on Thursday before being taken to court.

During the hearing, he denied the prosecution’s claim that he had been “uncooperative” and told the judge that there was no need for custodial interrogation by the CBI because he was neither tampering with the evidence nor liable to become a flight risk.