The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is on the front foot of unearthing the corruption & fraud cases of the Congress era. Already facing the CBI & ED (Enforcement Directorate) investigation cases related to corruption and money laundering, Karti Chidambaram, son of former cabinet minister P Chidambaram has now been booked for Visa Scam.
Illegal facilitation of illegal visas to Chinese Nationals
The CBI after the registration of the case under section 120B read with 477A of the Indian Penal Code and sections 8 & 9 of the Prevention of Corruption Act has conducted raids at multiple locations of Karti Chidambaram in Delhi & Chennai.
CBI has registered a case against 5 accused including private persons based in Chennai, Mumbai, private companies based in Mumbai, Mansa (Punjab), etc and unknown public servants and private persons. The accused include Karti P Chidambaram: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)
— ANI (@ANI) May 17, 2022
According to news reports, Congress leader P Chidambaram’s son Karti Chidambaram during UPA 2 had facilitated the visas of 250 Chinese nationals after receiving a Rs 50 lakh bribe. The CBI alleged that the home ministry had cleared the illegal visa use for the Chinese in 2011 when P Chidambaram was the minister of Home Affairs in the Manmohan Singh Government.
Reports suggest that a particular project was running behind schedule & in order to avoid penal action for delay, the project owner was trying to bring more Chinese nationals on-site to accelerate the project work.
Long syndicate of Corruption
Earlier in the Aircel-Maxis deal, it was alleged that P Chidambaram had withheld Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance of the deal until his son received the five per cent share in Aircel Company. Following this in 2018, CBI had named P Chidambaram and his son as accused in the charge sheet.
Further in 2018, CBI arrested Karti Chidambaram at Chennai airport in connection with an INX money laundering case. It was alleged by the CBI that in order to influence the tax probe against the INX media, Karti had received money from them.
Following the raid, Congress’s political leaders have started to term it vendetta politics. Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala in his tweet distributing the certificate of nationalism and patriotism to P Chidambaram said “Mr. P Chidambaram is a Nationalist & a Patriot, whose commitment to the country is unquestionable. To plant source-based preposterous allegations against a former Home Minister & Finance Minister by CBI reflects the lowest ebb in Political discourse”.
Mr. @PChidambaram_IN is a Nationalist & a Patriot, whose commitment to the country is unquestionable. To plant source based preposterous allegations against a former Home Minister & Finance Minister by CBI reflects the lowest ebb in political discourse.
— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) May 17, 2022
Although Congress’s list of corruption is long, the illegal facilitation of visas for Chinese is a serious case of concern not because bribes were obtained through it but also because it threatened the security of the nation. The question must be asked: what was the compulsion to release visas to Chinese nationals even though a set standard procedure has already been there for such clearances. Moreover, the alleged act has compromised the National Security of the country. A series of investigations should be launched against visas & other such fraud to find out the real culprit involved in the crime.
