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CBI books Karti Chidambaram for getting visas for Chinese nationals for ₹50 lakh 'bribe'
CBI teams conducted coordinated search operations at 10 locations in multiple cities in the country, including residences of the Chidambarams in Chennai and Delhi early morning.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has named Congress Lok Sabha MP Karti Chidambaram as an accused number one in an FIR filed for allegedly facilitating visas of 263 Chinese nationals for a power company after receiving ₹50 lakh as a bribe 11 years ago when his father P Chidambaram was the Union home minister, reported news agency PTI. Four others have also been named in the FIR.
CBI teams conducted coordinated search operations at 10 locations in multiple cities in the country, including residences of the Chidambarams in Chennai and Delhi early morning. The searches were carried out after the central probe agency registered an FIR on May 14 against Karti, his close associate S Bhaskararaman, the then associate vice president of Talwandi Sabo power project Vikas Makharia, who allegedly offered the bribe, Talwandi Sabo Power Limited (TSPL), Mumbai-based Bell Tools Limited through which bribes were alleged routed under IPC 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 477A(falsification of accounts) and section 8 and 9 of Prevention of Corruption Act, PTI quoted officials as saying.
While the CBI has listed "unknown public servant (s) and private person (s)" as sixth accused in the FIR, the agency has alleged in its FIR that "...there is reason to believe that the then home secretary (R K Singh) and home minister (Chidambaram) were in the knowledge of the matter of TSPL and work of TSPL was done through them but it is not ascertained at this stage whether. Shri P Chidambaram, the then home minister and the then home secretary were in the knowledge of" the demand and payment of illegal gratification or not.
"I have lost count, how many times has it been? Must be a record," Karti tweeted immediately after the CBI raids without specifying.
Later, he tweeted that his office has updated him about the searches. "My office has just updated on the 'record' twice in 2015, once in 2017, twice in 2018 and today :)!.”
P Chidambaram, in his tweets in Hindi and English, said a CBI team searched his residence in Chennai and his official residence in Delhi. "The team showed me an FIR in which I am not named as an accused. The search team found nothing and seized nothing," he said, adding, "I may point out that the timing of the search is interesting."
However, he did not mention what “timing” he was referring to.
In the new case, which is an offshoot of an ongoing probe in the INX media case, the CBI has alleged that Karti had allegedly received ₹50 lakh bribe through Bhaskararaman to facilitate the visa of 263 Chinese nationals during the UPA regime for TSPL, a Vedanta Group company, in July-August 2011, when his father was the Union home minister, PTI reported.
It is alleged that the power project in Punjab for which the establishment contract was given to a Chinese firm was running behind schedule and it needed manpower but there was a ceiling for allowing work permits of foreign nationals, it added.
It is alleged that the firm approached Karti who used his influence to facilitate the visas in violation of ceiling imposed.
P Chidambaram and Karti are also facing separate CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) cases involving INX Media and Aircel-Maxis deal. In the INX Media case, charge sheets were filed in 2019 and 2020. The charge sheets alleged that when P Chidambaram was the finance minister, he misused his office to favour INX Media in lieu of bribes.
(With agency inputs)
