CBI chargesheets Karti Chidambaram, others in Chinese workers' visa corruption case

New Delhi: The CBI has filed a charge sheet against Congress MP Karti Chidambaram and others in connection with alleged bribery in facilitating visas of Chinese nationals for a power company in 2011 when his father P Chidambaram was the Union home minister, officials said on Thursday.

In its charge sheet submitted before a special court here, the CBI has named Karti Chidambaram, the Lok Sabha MP from Sivaganga, his alleged close associate S Bhaskararaman, company Talawandi Sabo Power Ltd (TSPL), a subsidiary of Vedanta and Mumbai-based Bell Tools, through which bribes were allegedly routed, they said.

The agency has invoked charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, and forgery under the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, they said.

Other charge-sheeted accused include Viral Mehta, Anup Agarwal, Mansoor Siddiqui and Chetan Shrivastava, they said.

The CBI has filed the charge sheet after two years of probe into its FIR registered in 2022 where it had alleged that the Punjab-based TSPL was setting up a 1980 MW thermal power plant and the work was outsourced to a Chinese company Shandong Electric Power Construction Corp (SEPCO).

The project was running behind its schedule, and the company was allegedly facing prospects of penalty.

"In order to avoid penal actions for the delay, the said private company (TSPL) of Mansa was trying to bring more and more Chinese persons and professionals for their site at district Mansa (Punjab) and needed project visas over and above the ceiling imposed by the Ministry of Home Affairs," the CBI said in a statement in 2022.

The CBI FIR, which contained findings of the investigating officer who probed the preliminary enquiry, alleged that an executive of TSPL approached Karti Chidambaram through his "close associate/front man" Bhaskararaman.

"They devised a back-door way to defeat the purpose of the ceiling (maximum of project visas permissible to the company's plant) by granting permission to re-use 263 project visas allotted to the said Chinese company's officials," the agency had said after the registration of FIR and searches.

Project visas were a special type of visa introduced in 2010 for the power and steel sector for which detailed guidelines were issued during Chidambaram's tenure as home minister but there was no provision for the re-issue of project visas, the FIR had alleged.

"As per prevalent guidelines, deviation in rare and exceptional cases could be considered and granted only with the approval of the Home Secretary. However, in view of the above circumstances, the deviation in terms of re-use of project visas is likely to be approved by the then Home Minister...," it had alleged.

A TSPL executive allegedly submitted a letter to the home ministry on July 30, 2011, seeking approval to reuse the project visas allotted to his company, which was approved within a month and permission was issued, the FIR had alleged.

"On August 17, 2011, the executive, on being directed by Bhaskararaman, sent a copy of the above a letter dated July 30, 2011 to him through e-mail which was forwarded to Karti... Bhakaskararaman after discussion with P Chidambaram, the then home minister, demanded an illegal gratification of Rs 50 lakh for ensuring the approval," the FIR had alleged.

The FIR had alleged that the payment of said bribe was routed from TSP to Karti Chidambaram and Bhaskararaman through Mumbai-based Bell Tools Ltd with payments camouflaged under two invoices raised for consultancy and out-of-pocket expenses for Chinese visas-related works, the CBI FIR said, adding that the TSPL executive had later thanked Karti Chidambaram and Bhaskararaman on email.

Payment against the invoices was made by TSPL to Bell Tools Limited through cheque and then the said amount was paid in cash to Bhaskararaman, it had alleged.

"... 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," the agency had said in a statement.

"Information exists that Chidambaram had been on the board of Vedanta Group whereas his son Karti had taken financial favour from Sterlite Optical Technologies Limited, Mumbai (a Vedanta Group Company), which had lent Rs 1.5 crore in November 2003 to his company namely Meltraack India Limited, Chennai and the interest thereupon was waived off in August 2004 (when...P Chidambaram sworn as the Finance Minister,...)," the FIR had alleged.

It has been alleged that Karti Chidambaram and his frontman Bhaskararaman indulged in the collection of undue payments for settling the issues pending with the offices under the influence of P Chidambaram as minister in various ministries.