CBI books Karti Chidambaram for facilitating visa of Chinese nationals for illegal gratification

New Delhi: The CBI has filed a fresh case against Lok Sabha MP Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, for allegedly facilitating visas of 250 Chinese nationals after receiving illegal gratification of Rs 50 lakh, officials said on Tuesday.

The CBI on Tuesday morning started coordinated search operations at nine 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 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 here, the officials said.

”I have lost count, how many times has it been? Must be a record,” Karti tweeted without specifying.

In the new case which is an offshoot of an ongoing probe, the CBI has alleged that Karti Chidambaram had received Rs 50 lakh alleged bribe to facilitate the visa of 250 Chinese nationals during the UPA regime for a power project, the officials said.

The CBI got the whiff of the case during its ongoing investigation related to the INX media case in which Karti is already under probe in getting Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance for INX media, they said.

Following the scrutiny of the transaction, the CBI had detected the payments worth Rs 50 lakh which are alleged to be illegal gratification for facilitating the visa of Chinese workers who were supposed to work at the plant, the officials said.