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CBI books Karti Chidambaram, raids 10 locations in 6 states
The agency has claimed ₹50 lakh was paid to a firm controlled by Karti, for facilitating ‘project visas’ for 263 Chinese nationals who were to work at a thermal power project in Punjab
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday raided the premises of senior Congress leader and former union minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram, a Lok Sabha MP, alleging that the latter facilitated visas for Chinese nationals for a power project of the Vedanta group in Punjab in return for bribes, at a time when his father was the union home minister, people familiar with the development said.
The agency has claimed ₹50 lakh was paid to a firm, - Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd (ASCPL), controlled by Karti, for facilitating “project visas” for 263 Chinese nationals, who were to work at Vedanta group’s 1980 megawatt thermal power project, run by its subsidiary, TalwandiSabo Power Limited (TSPL) at Banawala village in Punjab’s Mansa district.
The case dates back to events that allegedly took place between July and September 2011, when P Chidambaram was the union home minster in United Progressive Alliance’s second term. Visa clearances come under the purview of the ministry of home affairs.
A fresh case has been lodged in this regard naming Karti Chidambaram, his close aide and chartered accountant, S Bhaskararaman, Vikas Makharia of Vedanta Group, TSPL, and a Mumbai based company, Bell Tools Limited, apart from unknown public servants.
P Chidambaram has not been named as in the latest case but CBI says it appears he was aware of the favour to Vedanta Group.
Reacting to the CBI action, P Chidambaram said the timing of searches was interesting. “The team showed me an FIR in which I am not named as an accused. The search team found nothing and seized nothing. I may point out that the timing of the search is interesting,” he tweeted.
Karti Chidambaram said he has lost count of raids on him. “I have lost count, how many times has it been? Must be a record.”
The central agency’s teams raided 10 locations including Chidambaram’s Lodhi Estate house in Delhi, Karti Chidambaram and Bhaskararaman’s premises’ in Chennai, three premises in Mumbai and one each in Karnataka, Punjab and Odisha.
The latest case has been registered on a reference from the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which wrote to CBI in June 2018 saying it retrieved emails which reveal ₹50 lakh was paid to ASCPL for the visa facilitation.
The anti-corruption probe agency lodged a preliminary enquiry (PE) in the matter in March this year, which was converted into a first information report (FIR) on May 14.
According to the FIR, which has been reviewed by HT, “TSPL was in the process of establishing its 1980MW thermal power plant at Mansa and establishing of plant was outsourced to Chinese Company – M/s Shandong Electric Power Construction Corp (SEPCO). The project was running behind its schedule and in order to avoid penal actions for the delay, it was trying to bring more and more Chinese professionals for their site and needed project visas over and above the ceiling imposed by MHA,” said a CBI official, requesting anonymity.
“Makharia, associate vice president of TSPL, approached Karti Chidambaram through S Bhaskararaman and thereafter, they devised a back-door way to defeat the purpose of ceiling (maximum of project visas permissible to the company’s plant) by granting permission to re-use 263 project visas allotted to the Chinese company’s officials,” said a CBI officer.
On July 30, 2011, Makharia submitted a letter to MHA seeking approval to re-use the project visas allotted to the company. Bhasakararaman, after a discussion with P Chidambaram, asked for ₹50 lakh bribe which Makharia promised to pay, according to the FIR.
“Thereafter, TSPL was granted the permission on August 30, 2011 by the MHA”, CBI FIR states.
The TSPL in an official statement said they were cooperating with the authorities. “The searches at our Punjab facility have been part of a larger CBI investigation. We are extending full cooperation to the authorities and facilitating the due process. We have no further comments,” the statement quoted a company spokesperson as saying.
TSPL, the FIR it adds, paid ₹50 lakh through Bell Tools Limited, as payment for a false invoice raised for consultancy and out of pocket expenses for visa related work, said the officer cited above.
On September 2, 2011, Makharia, through an email to Bhasakararaman, conveyed his thanks and attached permission letter issued by MHA’s Foreigners Division.
Referring to the project visas, CBI said a new type of visas introduced for power and steel sectors through a circular issued on October 5, 2010 with the approval of P Chidambaram. There was, however, no provision of re-use of project visas.
The agency has asserted that any deviation in the terms of re-use of project visas was only likely to have beeen approved by the then home minister. “In view of facts discussed above, there is reason to believe that the then home secretary and home minister 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 P Chidambaram and the then home secretary were in the knowledge of demand and payment of bribe,” CBI said.
CBI hasn’t clarified which former union home secretary was aware of the approval but R K Singh, currently the cabinet minister power minister, was home secretary between June 2011 and June 2013.
Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken said the raids were wrong. “The Congress party stands behind P Chidambaram. This is being done to divert the attention of people from the issue of rising inflation and unemployment,” he said.
The Chidambarams are already under investigation both by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for alleged irregularities in granting foreign investment promotion board (FIPB) approvals to the Aircel-Maxis deal in 2006 and a foreign investment by INX Media Ltd in 2007 when P Chidambaram was the union finance minister in UPA-1.
ASCPL is named by CBI and ED in those two cases as well.
In the ₹3,500 crore Aircel-Maxis deal, the agencies have claimed that ASCPL, a firm indirectly controlled by Karti Chidambaram raised an invoice of ₹26 lakh for services related to “market survey” against which Aircel made the payment on April 1, 2006. Another company run by him, Chess Management Services Pvt Ltd (CMSPL), also received ₹87 lakh from subsidiary companies of Maxis in the garb of providing ‘software services’.
Similarly, in the INX Media case, CBI has claimed that on P Chidambaram’s instructions, the company’s former directors, Peter Mukherjea and Indrani Mukherjea, met Karti Chidambaram at the Hyatt hotel in Delhi in June 2008. In this meeting, CBI has claimed, Karti sought a bribe of $1 million. The CBI charge sheet, however, has listed a bribe of ₹9.96 lakh only paid by INX to ASCPL.
