New Delhi. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a charge sheet against Congress MP Karti Chidambaram and others in connection with alleged bribery in granting visas to Chinese nationals for a power company in 2011. At that time his father P. Chidambaram was the Union Home Minister. Officials gave this information on Thursday.
He said that in its chargesheet presented before a special court here, the CBI has accused Karti Chidambaram, MP from Sivagangai Lok Sabha seat, and his alleged close aide S. Bhaskara Raman, has named Vedanta’s subsidiary Talwandi Sabo Power Limited (TSPL) and Mumbai-based Bell Tools, through which the bribe was allegedly paid. Officials said the agency has filed charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act.
He said that the other accused included in the charge sheet include V. Mehta, Anup Aggarwal, Mansoor Siddiqui and Chetan Srivastava.
The CBI has filed the charge sheet after two years of investigation in its FIR registered in 2022, which had alleged that Punjab-based TSPL was setting up a 1980 MW thermal power plant and the work was being done by Chinese company ‘Shandong Electric Power Construction Corp. ‘(SEPCO) was handed over.
The work on the project was getting delayed from its scheduled time and there was a possibility of fine being imposed on the company.
The CBI had said in a statement in 2022, “To avoid penal action for delay, the said private company (TSPL) of Mansa is trying to bring in more and more Chinese persons and professionals for its project in District Mansa (Punjab). “And for this he required a project visa in excess of the limit imposed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.” The CBI FIR has alleged that a TSPL official had contacted Karti Chidambaram through his “close associate” Bhaskararaman.