Shashwati Chowdhury
Published on: June 5, 2022, at 16:50 IST
On Saturday, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram filed an application in the Delhi High Court, challenging a Trial Court order granting him pre-arrest bail in a case which was filed by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the alleged ‘Chinese Visas Scam.’
The case will be heard by Justice Poonam A Bamba of the High Court on Monday.
In 2011, when his father, P Chidambaram, was the Union Home minister, the federal agency filed a money-laundering case against Karti and at least two others in the alleged scam of Rs. 50 lakh involving the granting of visas to ‘263 Chinese nationals.’
The case was registered after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) received a First information report (FIR) on May 17th. Karti was accused of misusing his father’s official position by granting Chinese project visas in exchange for a sum of 50 Lakh, according to the agency.
It is also claimed by the CBI that the then-Union Home Secretary and then-Union Home Minister Chidambaram approved the re-use of more than 250 project visas, and that this was done “In utter and gross violation because the prescribed guidelines did not have any provision for such re-use of the project visas”.
Despite the fact that there was no specific provision in the rules for allowing the reuse of project visas, Special Judge MK Nagpal denied anticipatory bail on Friday, saying that approval was given “blanketly,” endangering the country’s security.
The nature and gravity of the alleged offences, the nascent stage of the inquiry, and the accused Karti P Chidambaram and his CA S Bhaskararaman’s previous criminal records, according to the trial court, do not justify the petitioners’ being granted anticipatory bail.
Also, the Judge agreed with the ED counsel’s submission that the exact magnitude or volume of money processed or laundered in this case has yet to be established during the investigation.