Chidambaram, son face CBI heat

'Karti facilitated visas of Chinese citizens when father was HM'

- SOMENDRA SHARMA

The CBI launched on Tuesday simultaneous searches on the premises of senior Congress leader and former Union Minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram, Congress MP, at over a dozen locations in Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and one each in Mansa (Punjab), Koppal (Karnataka) and Jharsuguda (Odisha).

It also booked Karti for allegedly facilitating visas to 263 Chinese nationals after receiving illegal gratification of Rs 50 lakh, to enable them to work on a power project in Punjab.

A back-door method was allegedly devised to defeat the purpose of the ceiling (the maximum of Project Visas permissible to the company's plant) by granting permission to re-use 263 Project Visas allotted to the said Chinese company's officials, the CBI claimed.

Those named in the FIR are Karti P Chidambaram, Chennai, S Bhaskararaman (a close associate of Karti), also based in Chennai, Vikas Makharia, representing a Mansa-based private company, Talwandi Sabo Power Limited, Bell Tools Limited, Mumbai, and unknown public servants and private persons. Referring to the searches, Karti tweeted: “I have lost count, how many times it has been? Must be a record.”

He is already facing allegations of financial irregularities, including in the Mumbai-based INX media case.

Following the CBI's action on Tuesday, P Chidambaram tweeted, “This morning, a CBI team searched my residence at Chennai and my official residence at Delhi.