The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday alleged Congress MP Karti Chidambaram took a Rs 50 lakh bribe in its cost sheet. According to the probe company, Karti took the bribe via a detailed aide for getting sanction of the Union Home (*50*) for the reuse of visas for Chinese personnel by an organization that was establishing an influence plant in Punjab.
The bribe was pumped into an organization, the place Karti Chidambaram was a director and had management, via a “fictitious” money transaction, it claimed.
The ED submitted a cost sheet filed in opposition to Karti, an organization alleged to be promoted by him– Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited–, his alleged shut aide and accountant S Bhaskararaman, the corporate the place Chinese staff have been deployed–Talwandi Sabo Power Limited and others.
The particular Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court docket in Delhi took cognisance of the prosecution criticism on March 19 and summoned all of the accused listed in the cost sheet, together with Karti Chidambaram, to seem earlier than it on April 15.
The different accused embrace Padam Dugar, Vikas Makharia, Mansoor Siddiqi and Dugar Housing Ltd.
Probe discovered that “Karti P Chidambaram took illegal gratification of Rs 50 lakh through his close aide S Bhaskararaman for getting the approval for reuse of Chinese VISAs by the company named Talwandi Sabo Power Limited, which was establishing a power project at Mansa in Punjab.”
“Officials of the company approached Karti P Chidambaram for getting the approval for reuse of VISAs from the Ministry of Home Affairs wherein his father was Home Minister (senior Congress leader P Chidambaram),” it alleged in an announcement.
The purported modus operandi adopted in the case was that the corporate paid Rs 50 lakh via cheque to an entry operator in the garb of fictitious companies, it claimed.
“The entry operator in turn paid Rs 50 lakh cash to S Bhaskararaman, a close associate of Karti Chidambaram and the latter subsequently invested this cash of Rs 50 lakh in Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited, a company controlled by Karti P Chidambaram,” the company alleged.
The ED claimed that the worth of Rs 50 lakh so invested elevated to Rs 1.59 crore over a time frame which is the “proceeds of crime” as per provisions of the PMLA.
The MP earlier has mentioned that the ED probe in this case was a “fishing and roving” enquiry and that he has submitted all paperwork to the company. He had referred to as the case “most bogus”, asserting he was “certain that he never facilitated even a single Chinese national in their visa process, let alone 250.”
He had mentioned this case was an try to focus on his father P Chidambaram via him.
The cash laundering case of the ED stems from a CBI FIR.
The probe pertains to allegations of Rs 50 lakh being paid as kickbacks to Karti Chidambaram and S Bhaskararaman by a high govt of Vedanta group firm Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd. (TSPL), in line with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR.
According to the CBI, the work for organising the ability challenge was being executed by a Chinese firm and was operating not on time.
A TSPL govt had sought re-issuance of challenge visas for 263 Chinese staff for which Rs 50 lakh allegedly exchanged palms, in line with the CBI FIR.
The CBI had final 12 months raided the premises of the Chidambaram household and arrested Bhaskararaman at the same time as Karti Chidambaram was questioned by it.
This is the third cash laundering probe in opposition to Karti Chidambaram with the INX Media and Aircel-Maxis circumstances being probed by the ED for some years now.
Karti Chidambaram has been cost sheeted in these two circumstances by the company in the previous.
(With PTI inputs)
