Karti Chidambaram, Lok Sabha MP and son of Congress leader P Chidambaram who was raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday, took bribes to facilitate entry of additional Chinese workers illegally, said sources.
The Home Ministry, which was then headed by P Chidambaram, cleared illegal visa use for Chinese nationals in return for Karti Chidambaram’s bribes in July-August 2011, they said.
In 2011, the Talwandi Sabo Power Plant was in the process of establishing a 1980 MW Thermal Power plant at Mansa in Punjab.
The establishment was outsourced to a Chinese Company called Shandong Electric Power Construction Corp (SEPCO).
The project was running behind schedule, so to avoid penal action for the delay, Talwandi Sabo Power Limited wanted to bring in more Chinese professionals at the site, said sources.
“This needed project visas over and above the ceiling imposed by the Ministry of Home Affairs. So the company approached Karti Chidambaram. Through his close associates, they devised a backdoor way to defeat the purpose of visa ceiling by granting permission to re-use 263 project visas allotted to the Chinese company’s officials,” he added.
#PChidambaramRaided | 263 project visas reused through a backdoor. Permission was approved by the MHA in the same month. What are the other red flags against the Chidambarams?@Ashish_Mehrishi and @siddhantvm with details.
Join the broadcast with @ridhimb pic.twitter.com/MLr2IuF2XA
? News18 (@CNNnews18) May 17, 2022
These visas were approved by the Home Ministry in the same month of application, said the source.
He added that Karti Chidambaram was paid in crores through a false invoice by a company which made industrial knives citing consultancy services and visa related work.
THE RAIDS
The CBI has filed a fresh case against Karti Chidambaram for allegedly facilitating visas of 250 Chinese nationals after receiving illegal gratification of Rs 50 lakh in 2011, officials said on Tuesday.
This morning, a CBI team searched my residence at Chennai and my official residence at Delhi. The team showed me a 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.
? P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) May 17, 2022
The CBI on Tuesday morning started coordinated search operations at 10 locations in multiple cities in the country, including Karti Chidambaram?s residences in Chennai and Delhi, they said.
The searches are being conducted at three locations in Chennai, three in Mumbai and one each in Delhi, Karnataka, Punjab and Odisha, they added. A CBI team also visited the official residence of Karti Chidambaram and senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP P Chidambaram at Lodhi Estate, the officials said.
?I have lost count, how many times has it been? Must be a record,? Karti tweeted without specifying.
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