CBI searches Karti Chidambaram’s Chennai home in Chinese visa case

By IANS

NEW DELHI: In the most recent growth within the Chinese visa case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday performed searches on the residence of Congress MP Karti Chidambaram in Chennai and recovered some incriminating paperwork from there.

A CBI supply stated that when the probe company performed searches on the residence of Karti Chidambaram in May, a portion of the home needed to be sealed because the keys had been with the Congress MP’s spouse, who was reportedly in a foreign country then.

“Today, Karti Chidambaram’s wife joined the probe and we opened this portion of the house. We have recovered some incriminating evidence and documents,” stated the supply.

According to the CBI FIR, in 2011, a Mansa (Punjab) based mostly personal agency, Talwandi Sabo Power Limited, took the assistance of a intermediary and allegedly paid Rs 50 lakh to get visas issued to Chinse nationals to assist get a challenge accomplished earlier than the deadline.

“The private firm was in the process of establishing a 1,980 MW thermal power plant 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 in Mansa district. For this it needed project visas over and above the ceiling imposed by the Ministry of Home Affairs,” stated a CBI official.

The official stated that for the stated objective, the consultant of the personal agency approached an individual in Chennai by way of his shut affiliate and thereafter they devised a back-door ploy to get permission to re-use 263 challenge visas allotted to the stated Chinese firm’s officers.

In pursuance of the identical, the stated consultant of the Mansa-based firm submitted a letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs in search of approval to re-use the challenge visas allotted to the corporate, which was authorized inside a month and permission was issued to the agency.

“A bribe of Rs 50 lakh was allegedly demanded by the said private person based in Chennai through his close associate which was paid by the Mansa-based company. The payment of the said bribe was routed from Mansa to the person in Chennai and his close associate through a Mumbai-based company, reportedly controlled by Karti Chidambaram, as payment of false invoice raised for consultancy and out-of-pocket expenses for Chinese visa-related works,” stated the CBI official.

Karti Chidambaram’s father P. Chidambaram was the Union Home Minister then.