Trouble mounts for Karti Chidambaram: Congress MP summoned by court in Chinese visa 'scam'

A Delhi court on Tuesday summoned Congress MP Karti Chidambaram and others in connection with a money laundering case linked to an alleged Chinese visa scam. Special Judge M K Nagpal summoned Karti, the son of P Chidambaram, while taking cognisance of a charge sheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). 

The judge directed Karti, his former chartered accountant S Bhaskararaman, and six others, including representatives of a few companies, to appear before the court on April 5. 

The accused also include Padam Dugar, Vikas Makharia, Mansoor Siddiqi, Dugar Housing Ltd, Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd, and Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd. 

Karti is accused of helping in the issuance of visas to 263 Chinese nationals in 2011 when his father P Chidambaram was the Union Home Minister. 

The ED said the actual magnitude or volume of the processed or laundered amount of money in the case was yet to be established and the alleged payment of Rs 50 lakh bribe, as mentioned in the CBl case, cannot be considered as the basis of the present case. 

The agency registered its case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) taking note of an FIR lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the same case.

As per the probing agency, a private company was in the process of establishing a thermal power plant in Mansa. The contract for which was outsourced to a Chinese company. The project was running behind schedule and in order to avoid being penalised, the private company of Mansa tried to get in more and more Chinese persons and professionals. However, it required visas for the said purpose over and above what's been permitted by the Home Ministry. 

The company allegedly devised a back-door way to defeat the purpose of the ceiling by granting permission to reuse 263 project visas allotted to the Chinese company's officials. The representative of the company submitted a letter to the Home Ministry for approval to reuse the project visas allotted to the company. The CBI stated that permission was granted within a month.

(With inputs from PTI)