Congress leader Karti Chidambaram has alleged in a letter to the Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials seized his confidential documents during the searches at his residence.
Chidambaram wrote, "In the course of this so-called raid, certain officers of the CBI seized my confidential and sensitive personal notes and papers pertaining to the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Information and Technology, of which I am a Member."
He added that the central agency also seized the draft notes and questions to be asked to the witnesses summoned to the Committee and his handwritten notes related to the depositions made to the Committee by Witnesses for "reasons best known to the Agency".
He added that these actions by the central agency “amount to a direct assault upon the democratic principles on which our Parliament is founded”. Citing breach of parliamentary privilege, Chidambaram urged the house to take immediate cognisance of the issue.
Chidambaram also claimed in the letter that he and his family have become a target of “relentless campaign” by the incumbent Central government over the last few years.
He noted, “Over the course of the past few years, my family and I have become targets of a relentless campaign by the present Government and its investigating agencies who are trying to silence our voices of dissent by foisting one fake case after another. Such targeted intimidation of a Member of the House amounts to a breach of privilege.”
Meanwhile, the CBI questioned Karti Chidambaram for nine hours in connection with an alleged scam related to issuing visas to 263 Chinese nationals in 2011 when his father was the home minister of the country.
As per the CBI FIR, the case against Chidambaram and his close associate Bhaskaranaman is that of accepting Rs 50 lakh as bribe by a top executive of Vedanta group company Talwandi Sabo Power Limited (TSPL) for re-issuance of project visas for 263 Chinese workers of a firm which was executing the project. TSPL was setting up a power plant in Punjab.
(With inputs from Munish Pandey)