In New Delhi, the Enforcement Directorate alleged on Thursday that Karti Chidambaram, a member of the Congress, received a bribe of Rs 50 lakh through a close associate to secure approval from the Union home ministry for reusing visas for Chinese personnel by a company setting up a power plant in Punjab.
The accusation suggests that this purported bribe found its way into a company where Karti Chidambaram held directorship and wielded influence, through a fictitious cash transaction. Karti Chidambaram, aged 52, represents the Sivaganga constituency in the Lok Sabha, hailing from Tamil Nadu, and the investigative agency has elicited his testimony on multiple occasions regarding this matter.
This federal agency has levied these allegations in a charge sheet filed against Karti Chidambaram, a company purportedly linked to him—Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited—his alleged close associate and accountant S Bhaskararaman, the company that employed Chinese workers—Talwandi Sabo Power Limited—and others.
The special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Delhi acknowledged the prosecution’s complaint on March 19. It has summoned all the individuals named in the charge sheet, Karti Chidambaram included, to appear before it on April 15. The other individuals implicated include Padam Dugar, Vikas Makharia, Mansoor Siddiqi, and Dugar Housing Ltd.
The investigation found that “Karti P Chidambaram received illicit gratification amounting to Rs 50 lakh via his close aide S Bhaskararaman to secure approval for the reuse of Chinese visas by Talwandi Sabo Power Limited, which was establishing a power project in Mansa, Punjab.”
“The company’s officials approached Karti P Chidambaram to procure the necessary approvals for visa reuse from the Ministry of Home Affairs, where his father, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, served as Home Minister,” it alleged in a statement. The alleged modus operandi in this case involved the company issuing a Rs 50 lakh cheque to an entry operator under the guise of fictitious services, it claimed.
“In turn, the entry operator disbursed Rs 50 lakh in cash to S Bhaskararaman, a close associate of Karti Chidambaram, who subsequently invested this sum of cash in Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited, a company under Karti P Chidambaram’s control,” the agency asserted.
The Enforcement Directorate contended that the value of the Rs 50 lakh investment swelled to Rs 1.59 crore over time, constituting “proceeds of crime” under the provisions of the PMLA. Previously, the MP had dismissed the ED’s inquiry in this matter as a “fishing and roving” expedition, affirming that he had furnished all necessary documents to the agency. He vehemently denounced the case as “baseless,” maintaining that he had never aided even a single Chinese national in their visa process, let alone 250.
He insinuated that this case was a ploy to target his father, P Chidambaram, through him. The ED’s money laundering investigation emanated from a CBI FIR. The inquiry centers on allegations of Rs 50 lakh being exchanged as kickbacks to Karti Chidambaram and S Bhaskararaman by a senior executive of a Vedanta group subsidiary, Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd. (TSPL), according to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR.
According to the CBI, the project, executed by a Chinese company, faced delays. An executive from TSPL purportedly sought the reissuance of project visas for 263 Chinese workers, involving an alleged exchange of Rs 50 lakh, as per the CBI FIR.
Last year, the CBI raided properties belonging to the Chidambaram family and apprehended Bhaskararaman while Karti Chidambaram was interrogated. This marks the third instance of the ED probing Karti Chidambaram for money laundering, with investigations ongoing in the INX Media and Aircel-Maxis cases. Karti Chidambaram has previously been charged in these two cases by the agency.