Karti Chidambaram news updates: A Special CBI court in Delhi Friday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Congress MP Karti Chidambaram in a case of alleged Chinese Visas scam that was filed by the Enforcement Directorate, reported news agency ANI on Friday. Special Judge MK Nagpal denied relief to Karti, saying there was not enough ground to allow his application.
The ED recently registered the money-laundering case against Karti and others in the alleged scam pertaining to the issuance of a visa to 263 Chinese nationals in 2011 when his father P Chidambaram was the home minister. The federal agency has filed its case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) taking cognisance of a recent first information report by the CBI in the same case.
In the last hearing, senior advocate Kapil Sibal argued that the alleged transaction is from 2011, but the ED registered the case after a lapse of a long time, adding that no investigation was conducted in all these years. Counsel also argued that the value of the alleged transaction is Rs 50 lakh, which is less than one crore and in view of this fact, he should be granted bail.
According to the FIR, the Mansa (Punjab)-based private Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd took the help of a middleman and allegedly paid Rs 50 lakh to get the visa issued for Chinese nationals to complete a project before the deadline.
"The payment of said bribe was routed from the Mansa-based private company to said private person of Chennai and his close associate through a Mumbai-based company as payment of false invoice raised for consultancy and out of pocket expenses for Chinese visas related works, whereas the private company based at Mumbai was never in any kind of work relating to visas rather it was in an entirely different business of industrial knives," as per the case.
Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union Minister P. Chidambaram and the Lok Sabha member from Sivaganga, denied all the allegations and said that he "did not facilitate a single Chinese national" and the case was bogus.
Read More | Karti Chidambaram appears before CBI in visa scam case; terms claims against him 'bogus'
(agencies inputs)
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