Karti Chidambaram took ₹50 lakh bribe through close aide in Chinese visa case: ED

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Charge sheet filed

The federal agency made these charges in a charge sheet filed against Karti Chidambaram, a company alleged to have been promoted by him — Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited — his alleged close aide and accountant S Bhaskararaman, the company where Chinese workers were deployed — Talwandi Sabo Power Limited and others.

The special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Delhi took cognisance of the prosecution complaint on 19 March. It has summoned all the accused listed in the charge sheet, including Karti Chidambaram, to appear before it on 15 April.

The other accused include Padam Dugar, Vikas Makharia, Mansoor Siddiqi and Dugar Housing Ltd.

Probe found that “Karti P Chidambaram took illegal gratification of ₹50 lakh through his close aide S Bhaskararaman for getting the approval for reuse of Chinese Visas by the company named Talwandi Sabo Power Limited, which was establishing a power project at Mansa in Punjab.”

“Officials of the company approached Karti P Chidambaram for getting the approval for reuse of VISAs from the Ministry of Home Affairs wherein his father was Home Minister (senior Congress leader P Chidambaram),” it alleged in a statement.

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‘Modus operandi’

The purported modus operandi adopted in the case was that the company paid ₹50 lakh through cheque to an entry operator in the garb of fictitious services, it claimed.

“The entry operator in turn paid Rs 50 lakh cash to S Bhaskararaman, a close associate of Karti Chidambaram and the latter subsequently invested this cash of Rs 50 lakh in Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited, a company controlled by Karti P Chidambaram,” the agency alleged.

The ED claimed that the value of ₹50 lakh so invested increased to ₹1.59 crore over a period of time which is the “proceeds of crime” as per provisions of the PMLA.

The MP earlier said that the ED probe in this case was a “fishing and roving” enquiry and that he has submitted all documents to the agency. He had called the case “most bogus”, asserting he was “certain that he never facilitated even a single Chinese national in their visa process, let alone 250.”

He had said this case was an attempt to target his father P Chidambaram through him.

The money laundering case of the ED stems from a CBI FIR.

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The allegations

The probe pertains to allegations of ₹50 lakh being paid as kickbacks to Karti Chidambaram and S Bhaskararaman by a top executive of Vedanta group company Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd. (TSPL), according to the CBI FIR.

According to the CBI, the work for setting up the power project was being executed by a Chinese company and was running behind schedule.

A TSPL executive had sought re-issuance of project visas for 263 Chinese workers for which ₹50 lakh allegedly exchanged hands, according to the CBI FIR.

The CBI had last year raided the premises of the Chidamabram family and arrested Bhaskararaman even as Karti Chidambaram was questioned by it.

This is the third money laundering probe against Karti Chidambaram with the INX Media and Aircel-Maxis cases being probed by the ED for some years now.

Karti Chidambaram has been charge-sheeted in these two cases by the agency in the past.

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