ED Registers Money Laundering Case Against Karti Chidambaram in Chinese Visa Scam Case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has registered a money laundering case against Congress MP Karti Chidambaram and others in the alleged visa scam, officials said on Wednesday. The scam pertains to the issuance of visa to 263 Chinese nationals in 2011 when his father P Chidambaram was the home minister.

The federal agency has filed its case under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) taking cognizance of a recent first information report by the CBI in the same case, they said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) summoned Karti Chidambaram to join the probe on Wednesday in connection with a case lodged against him and others in the visa scam.

Karti was summoned to appear on Wednesday by 11 am at CBI’s New Delhi based headquarters.

Karti’s Charted Accountant S. Bhaskararaman is currently on custodial remand of the CBI and there are possibilities that Karti might be confronted with him.

The CBI has recovered 65,000 emails in the matter, which will be used as evidences.

Similarly, a sales deed, recovered during raids, is also considered crucial in the case. The deed is of a property bought in Jor Bagh and its power of attorney is in the name of Bhaskararaman, whereas the property was bought by Karti and his mother.

According to the FIR, a Mansa (Punjab) based private firm, Talwandi Sabo Power Limited, took help of a middleman and allegedly paid Rs 50 lakh to get the visa issued for Chinese nationals, which would help the firm in completing a project before the deadline.

“The private firm was in the process of establishing a 1,980 MW thermal power plant the work for which was outsourced to a Chinese company. The project was running behind its schedule. In order to avoid penal actions for the delay, the said private company was trying to bring more and more Chinese professionals to its site for which it needed project visas over and above the ceiling imposed by the Ministry of Home Affairs,” said a CBI official.

(With inputs from PTI and IANS)

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