NEW DELHI: A day after skipping the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) summons, Congress Lok Sabha MP Karti P Chidambaram on Thursday appeared before the agency for questioning in connection with an alleged visa for bribery case.
Karti, who is the son of former Union finance and home minister P Chidambaram, arrived at CBI headquarters here at Lodhi road around 8.30 am.
As per CBI officials, he will be questioned about his role in the fresh case.
The CBI on May 17 searched the premises of P Chidambaram and his son Karti in Delhi as well as in Chennai.
The fresh case was registered by the federal investigative agency alleging that Karti received a bribe of Rs 50 lakh for facilitating the visas of over 263 Chinese nationals for the Talwandi Sabo Power Plant in Punjab’s Mansa from 2010 to 2014 when P Chidambaram was holding the portfolio of Union minister of home affairs.
Besides Karti, the CBI has named his close associate S Bhaskararaman, Mansa-based private company’s representative Vikas Makharia, Talwandi Sabo Power Limited, Bell Tools Limited and unknown public servants and private persons.
CBI had said that Talwandi Sabo Power Plant was in the process of establishing a 1980 MW Thermal Power plant at Mansa in Punjab.
The official said that the establishment was outsourced to a Chinese Company called Shandong Electric Power Construction Corp (SEPCO).
“The project was running behind schedule so in order to avoid penal action for the delay Talwandi Sabo Power Limited was trying to bring more and more Chinese professionals at the site,” the source said, adding that 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 and they devised a back door way to defeat the purpose of the Visa ceiling by granting permission to re-use 263 project Visas allotted to the Chinese company’s officials,” the official had said.
The permission for this devious Visa grant to Chinese professionals was approved by Home Ministry in the same month of application, the official had said
He further alleged that payment of crores was made to Karti through a false invoice by a company which made industrial knives citing consultancy services and visa-related work.
The CBI is already probing P Chidambaram and his son in other cases too. Karti and P Chidambaram were earlier arrested in the case.