CBI carries raids at Karti Chidambaram's residence over Chinese visa case

|HT|

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday carried out searches at Congress MP Karti Chidambaram's residence in Chennai, in connection with the Chinese visa case, said officials. The officials said during searches on May 17 after filing of the FIR, a portion of the Congress leader's home was sealed because the keys were not available.

The keys were understood to be with his wife who was abroad at the time of searches, they said.

The searches in that portion were resumed on Saturday after agency received the keys, officials added.

The Chinese visa case pertains to the issuance of visas to 263 Chinese nationals in 2011 when Karti's father and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram was the Union home minister in the Congress-led UPA government. The CBI has claimed that ₹50 lakh was paid to a firm, - Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd (ASCPL), controlled by Karti, for facilitating project visas for these Chinese nationals, who were to work at Vedanta group’s 1980 megawatt thermal power project, run by its subsidiary, TalwandiSabo Power Limited (TSPL) at Banawala village in Punjab’s Mansa district. A fresh case was lodged naming Karti Chidambaram, his close associate and chartered accountant, S Bhaskararaman, Vikas Makharia of Vedanta Group, TSPL, and a Mumbai-based company, Bell Tools Limited, apart from unknown public servants.

On June 24, the Delhi high court adjourned the hearing on an anticipatory bail plea of Karti for July 12. He had moved a petition seeking anticipatory bail in a money laundering case connected with the visa case.

Karti has termed the allegations against him a result of political vendetta.

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