The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday, 25 May, filed a money laundering case against Congress Lok Sabha MP Karti Chidambaram for his alleged involvement in a bribes-for-visa scam, news agencies reported officials as saying.
The case was registered under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), and comes at the heels of the First Information Report (FIR) filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the matter.
Chidambaram said on Wednesday that he would not participate in the investigation at the headquarters of the CBI in connection with the alleged visa scam, as per ANI.
The CBI had registered a fresh case against Karti over alleged foreign remittances between 2010 and 2014, when his father P Chidambaram was the Union Finance Minister.
Officials had indicated that the MP allegedly aided in granting visas to 250 Chinese nationals for a government project, after receiving illegal payments of Rs 50 lakh.
According to the FIR, Karti and his associate S Bhaskararaman received remittances from a top executive of Vedanta group company Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd (TSPL), which was tasked with establishing a power plant in Punjab.
The ED will investigate the alleged 'proceeds of the crime', PTI reported.
The CBI had reportedly unearthed the case – which dates back to when his father, P Chidambaram, was serving as the Union finance minister – while probing the high-profile INX media corruption case.
'Ludicrous': Karti Chidambaram Denies Involvement
In a statement on Tuesday, the MP denied all allegations pertaining to the scam, calling them 'ludicrous', and said that the central agencies are a tool for the government to fulfill its political vendetta.
"I have no relationship whatsoever with any of the corporate entities mentioned in the FIR in which I have been named as an accused. I say with certainty that I have never facilitated even a single Chinese national in their visa process, let alone 250," the MP's statement read.
(With inputs from IANS, PTI and ANI.)
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