Chinese visa scam: ED files money laundering case against Karti Chidambaram

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a money laundering case on Wednesday in the Chinese visa scam involving Congress MP Karti Chidambaram. This development comes as the MP is scheduled to join the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) investigation. 

The court had directed Chidambaram to appear before the CBI within 16 hours of him landing in India, during the anticipatory bail application hearing. The MP landed in India in the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday.

Chidambaram will be given a notice three days in advance if they want to arrest him.

If the MP appears before the officials today, he would be questioned about his close ties with S Bhaskararaman, accused of taking Rs 50 lakh in bribe in exchange for visa approval for 236 Chinese nationals in 2011.

This comes after CBI raided several locations including Chidambaram’s residences in Delhi and Chennai on charges of taking bribes for visa approval. 

The current case pertains to a private company based in Mansa that’s in the process of establishing a thermal power plant in Mansa, the contract for which was outsourced to a Chinese company. The project was running behind schedule and in order to avoid being penalised, the private company of Mansa tried to get in more and more Chinese persons and professionals. However, it required visas for the said purpose over and above what’s been permitted by the Home Ministry. 

The company devised a back-door way to defeat the purpose of ceiling by granting permission to reuse 263 project visas allotted to the Chinese company’s officials. The representative of the company submitted a letter to the Home Ministry for approval to reuse the project visas allotted to the company. The CBI stated that permission was granted within a month.

Karti Chidambaram refuted all allegations and said, "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 had come 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.”

Also read: CBI issues statement on Karti Chidambaram’s ‘illegal visas’ case