Visa Scam: Karti Chidambaram Gets Interim Protection From Arrest Till 30 May

Karti said that he "did not felicitate a single Chinese national" and that the case was bogus.

File image of Congress MP Karti Chidambaram. 

(Photo: PTI)

A Delhi court on Thursday, 26 May, granted interim protection from arrest to Congress MP Karti Chidambaram till 30 May in connection with the alleged Chinese visa scam case, reported IANS.

He, along with others, has been accused of helping Chinese nationals get visas by flouting rules.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed the money laundering case against the Lok Sabha MP, his close aide S Bhaskararaman, and others in connection with alleged foreign remittances between 2010 and 2014, when his father P Chidambaram was the Union Finance Minister.

According to the FIR, Karti and S Bhaskararaman received remittances from a top executive of Vedanta Group company Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd (TSPL), which was tasked with establishing a power plant in Punjab.

As per the FIR, Talwandi Sabo took the help of a middleman and allegedly paid Rs 50 lakh to get the visa issued for Chinese nationals to complete a project before the deadline.

'Bogus Case and Bogus Investigation': Karti

Earlier in the day, Karti appeared before the CBI at its headquarters here to record his statement in connection with the case.

While leaving the CBI headquarters, Karti said he "did not felicitate a single Chinese national" and the case was bogus.

He said, "This is a bogus case and a bogus investigation. They always treat me with courtesy but there is nothing to ask me. That's the whole point."

On Wednesday, Bhaskararaman was arrested by the CBI in Chennai for allegedly helping Chinese nationals get visas by flouting the rules.

According to CBI, "a bribe of Rs 50 lakh was allegedly demanded by the private person based at Chennai through his close associate which was paid by the Mansa-based private company."

"The payment of said bribe was routed from the Mansa-based private company to said private person of Chennai and his close associate through a Mumbai-based company as payment of false invoice raised for Consultancy and out of pocket expenses for Chinese visas related works, whereas the private company based at Mumbai was never in any kind of work relating to visas rather it was in an entirely different business of industrial knives," as per CBI.

(With inputs from IANS.)