CBI books Karti, raids 10 locations in 6 states
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday raided the premises of senior Congress leader and former union minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram, a Lok Sabha MP, alleging that the latter facilitated visas for Chinese nationals for a power project of the Vedanta group in Punjab in return for bribes, at a time when his father was Union home minister, people familiar with the development said.
The agency has claimed ₹50 lakh was paid to a firm, — Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd (ASCPL), controlled by Karti, for facilitating “project visas” for 263 Chinese nationals, who were to work on Vedanta group’s 1,980 megawatt thermal power project, run by its subsidiary, Talwandi Sabo Power Limited (TSPL) at Banawala village in Punjab’s Mansa district.
The case dates back to events that allegedly took place between July and September 2011, when P Chidambaram was the union home minster during UPA’S second term. Visa clearances come under the purview of the MHA.
A fresh case has been lodged in this regard naming Karti Chidambaram, his close aide and chartered accountant S Bhaskararaman, Vikas Makharia of Vedanta Group, TSPL, and Mumbai-based company Bell Tools Limited, apart from unknown public servants.
P Chidambaram has not been named in the latest case but CBI says it appears he was aware of the favour to Vedanta Group.
P Chidambaram said the timing of searches was interesting. “The team showed me an FIR in which I am not named as an accused. The search team found nothing and seized nothing. I may point out that the timing of the search is interesting,” he tweeted.
Karti Chidambaram said he has lost count of raids on him. “I have lost count, how many times has it been? Must be a record.”
The CBI teams raided 10 locations — Chidambaram’s Lodhi Estate house in Delhi, Karti Chidambaram and Bhaskararaman’s premises’ in Chennai, three premises in Mumbai and one each in Karnataka, Punjab and Odisha.
The latest case has been registered on a reference from the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which wrote to the CBI in June 2018 saying it retrieved emails that reveal ₹50 lakh was paid to ASCPL for the visa facilitation.
The anti-corruption probe agency lodged a preliminary enquiry (PE) in the matter in March this year, which was converted into an FIR on May 14.
According to the FIR, which has been reviewed by HT, “TSPL was in the process of establishing its 1980MW thermal power plant at Mansa and establishing of plant was outsourced to Chinese Company – M/s Shandong Electric Power Construction Corp (SEPCO). The project was running behind its schedule and in order to avoid penal actions for the delay, it was trying to bring more and more Chinese professionals... and needed project visas over and above ceiling imposed by MHA.”
“Makharia, associate vice president of TSPL, approached Karti Chidambaram through S Bhaskararaman and thereafter, they devised a back-door way to defeat the purpose of ceiling (of project visas permissible to the company’s plant) by granting permission to re-use 263 project visas allotted to the Chinese company’s officials,” said a CBI officer. On July 30, 2011, Makharia submitted a letter to MHA seeking approval to re-use the project visas allotted to the company. Bhaskararaman, after a discussion with P Chidambaram, asked for a ₹50 lakh bribe which Makharia promised to pay, according to the FIR.
“Thereafter, TSPL was granted permission on August 30, 2011 by MHA,” the FIR states.
“The searches at our Punjab facility have been part of a larger CBI investigation. We are extending full cooperation... We have no further comments,” a statement from TSPL quoted a company spokesperson as saying.
Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken said: “The Congress party stands behind P Chidambaram. This is being done to divert attention of people from the issue of rising inflation and unemployment.”
The Chidambarams are already under investigation for alleged irregularities in granting foreign investment promotion board approvals to the Aircel-maxis deal in 2006 and a foreign investment by INX Media Ltd in 2007.
CBI ALLEGED THAT KARTI FACILITATED VISAS FOR CHINESE NATIONALS FOR A POWER PROJECT OF THE VEDANTA GROUP IN PUNJAB’S MANSA IN RETURN FOR BRIBES, AT A TIME WHEN HIS FATHER WAS UNION HOME MINISTER