Karti Chidambaram's Close Associate Arrested by CBI in Bribery Case

This comes a day after the CBI conducted searches at nearly nine locations linked to P Chidambaram and his son.

Karti Chidambaram.

(Photo: PTI)

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday, 18 May, arrested S Bhaskararaman, a close associate of Lok Sabha MP Karti Chidambaram, in an alleged bribery case, PTI reported, quoting officials.

This comes a day after the CBI conducted searches at nearly nine locations (residences and offices) linked to Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram and his son, Karti Chidambaram.

Nine places in Karnataka, Punjab, Odisha, Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, as well as Karti Chidambaram and P Chidambaram's residences in Delhi, were searched on Tuesday.

The CBI has registered a fresh case against Karti Chidambaram over alleged foreign remittances between 2010 and 2014.

Officials indicated that the MP allegedly aided in granting visas to 250 Chinese nationals for a government project after receiving illegal payments of Rs 50 lakh.

The CBI reportedly unearthed the case – which dates back to when his father, P Chidambaram, was serving as the Union finance minister – while probing the high-profile INX media corruption case.

Father, Son React on Twitter

In light of the searches, the former Union minister took to Twitter to say that the "timing of the search is interesting."

Karti, too, reacted to the searches and said in a tweet, "I have lost count, how many times has it been? Must be a record."

What Is the INX Media Case?

The CBI has alleged discrepancies in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance that was given to INX Media for receiving offshore funds of Rs 305 crore in 2007.

It has been alleged that P Chidambaram withheld the FIPB clearance of the transaction until his son received a 5 percent share in the firm.

The MP was previously arrested by the central agency in February 2018 and was granted bail a month after the arrest.

(With inputs from PTI.)