Congress MP Karti Chidambaram, accused of facilitating visas for Chinese nationals by flouting rules, on Thursday morning reached the CBI headquarters amid the intensifying probe. "Every case that has been filed against me is a bogus case. One is bogus... another is more bogus. This one is most bogus," he told reporters. The central probe agency had asked the 50-year-old leader to join the probe. "I have not felicitated a single Chinese national in getting a visa," he added.
The Enforcement Directorate, which probes money-laundering cases, has filed a case against the Congress leader, his aide S Bhaskararaman, and others, for facilitating visas for a power project of the Vedanta group in Punjab in return for bribes. P Chidambaram, his father, was a union minister at the time the alleged fraud unfolded, it has been said. Vikas Makharia of the Vedanta Group is among those accused.
The Congress leader, who has been accused in the INX media case too, on Tuesday accused the central government of using central agencies against him. “I am heading back home today, as was planned when I left two weeks ago for a work/family-visit trip to the UK and Europe. It does not intimidate me that the central government is once again using its agencies to accuse me of a malicious and completely fabricated charge.”
“Previously, the agencies have gone after me based on the statement of an undertrial murder suspect. Now, they are basing their bogus charges on the alleged actions of a deceased person, whom I have never met. I intend to continue to fight every one of their motivated attempts to target my father through me,” he had said.
{{/usCountry}}“Previously, the agencies have gone after me based on the statement of an undertrial murder suspect. Now, they are basing their bogus charges on the alleged actions of a deceased person, whom I have never met. I intend to continue to fight every one of their motivated attempts to target my father through me,” he had said.
{{/usCountry}}"We haven't summoned him since the court has already directed him to join the investigation within 16 hours of his arrival in India. If he fails to appear, then we might issue summon order to him for joining the investigation," a CBI officer was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
(With inputs from ANI)