Chinese visa scam: CBI is playing test cricket with me, mocks Karti Chidambaram

New Delhi, May 28: Congress MP Karti P. Chidambaram on Saturday appeared before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for the third straight day to record his statements in connection with Chinese Visa Scam.  

While interacting with the media, Karti Chidambaram said that he had written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla against the CBI for seizing his confidential parliamentary papers and is awaiting his reply.  He also took a dig at the investigation agency by likening his interrogation to a test cricket game and termed it a "tactic" of harassment and political vendetta.  

On Thursday, the CBI grilled Karti - son of former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram - for about six hours. The following day again, the questioning went on for about six hours.  S. Bhaskararaman his Chartered Accountant, is currently in custodial remand of the CBI. Karti will be confronted with him. The CBI had told the court that it wants to confront both the accused.  

The CBI has also recovered 65,000 emails in the matter which will be used as evidence.  According to sources, a sales deed recovered during the raids is very important. This sales deed is of a property bought in Jor Bagh and the power of attorney is in the name of Bhaskararaman whereas the property was bought by Karti and his mother. Karti Chidambaram will be questioned in this connection.  

According to an FIR filed recently, a Mansa (Punjab) based private firm, Talwandi Sabo Power Limited, took help of a middleman and allegedly paid Rs 50 lakh to get the Visa issued for Chinese nationals to help completion of the project before the deadline.  

"The Mansa (Punjab) based private firm was in the process of establishing a 1,980 MW thermal power plant and establishing of plant was outsourced to a Chinese company. The project was running behind its schedule. In order to avoid penal actions for the delay, the said private company was trying to bring more and more Chinese persons, professionals for their site at district Mansa (Punjab) and needed Project VISAs over and above the ceiling imposed by Ministry of Home Affairs," said the CBI official.  

The official said that for the purpose, the representative of the said private company approached a person based at Chennai through his close associate and thereafter they devised a back-door way to defeat the purpose of 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.  In pursuance of the same, the said representative of Mansa based private company submitted a letter to Ministry of Home Affairs seeking approval to re-use the Project VISAs allotted to this company, which was approved within a month and permission was issued to the company.  

"A bribe of Rs 50 lakh was allegedly demanded by said private person based at Chennai through his close associate which was paid by the said Mansa based private company. The payment of said bribe was routed from Mansa based private company to said private person of Chennai and his close associate through a Mumbai based company as payment of false invoice raised for Consultancy and out of pocket expenses for Chinese visas related works 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," said the CBI official.  

It has been alleged that Karti's father P. Chidambaram allegedly helped the Chinese getting visas by flouting rules. The CBI officials said that they were looking into the matter. IANS