Sources said Karti Chidambaram, Lok Sabha MP and son of Congress leader P Chidambaram, who was raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday, had illegally taken bribe to facilitate the entry of additional Chinese workers.
He said the Home Ministry, which was headed by P Chidambaram, cleared illegal visa access for Chinese nationals in July-August 2011 in exchange for Karti Chidambaram’s bribe.
In 2011, Talwandi Sabo Power Plant was in the process of setting up a 1980 MW thermal power plant at Mansa, Punjab.
The installation was outsourced to a Chinese company called Shandong Electric Power Construction Corp (SEPCO). Sources said that the project was running behind schedule, so to avoid penal action for delay, Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd wanted to bring more Chinese professionals to the site.
“This required project visas in excess of the limits imposed by the home ministry. So the company approached Karti Chidambaram. Through his close associates, he created a backdoor way to defeat the purpose of visa ceiling by allowing the reuse of 263 project visas allotted to Chinese company officials,” he said.
The source said that these visas were approved by the Home Ministry in the same month of application.
He said Karti Chidambaram was paid in crores through false invoices by a company which made industrial knives, citing consultancy services and visa related work.
The RAIDS
The CBI has registered a fresh case against Karti Chidambaram for facilitating visas of 250 Chinese nationals after receiving an illegal bribe of Rs 50 lakh in 2011, officials said on Tuesday.
This morning, a CBI team searched my residence in Chennai and my official residence in Delhi. The team showed me an FIR in which my name is not there as an accused.
The search team found nothing and did not confiscated anything.
I can tell that the search time is interesting.
— P Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) 17 May 2022
The CBI on Tuesday morning launched a coordinated search operation at 10 locations in several cities of the country, including the residences of Karti Chidambaram in Chennai and Delhi, he said.
He said searches were being conducted at three places in Chennai, three in Mumbai and one each in Delhi, Karnataka, Punjab and Odisha. A CBI team also visited the official residence of Karti Chidambaram and senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP P Chidambaram at Lodhi Estate, officials said.
“I have lost count, how many times has this happened? Must be a record,” Karti tweeted without specifying.
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