ED files fresh chargesheet against Congress MP Karti Chidambaram in money laundering case

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a fresh chargesheet against Congress MP Karti Chidambaram and some others in a money laundering case linked to alleged issuance of visas to some Chinese nationals in 2011, official sources said.

The prosecution complaint was filed here on January 25 by the central agency before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court which is yet to take cognisance of it, the sources said.

Apart from Karti Chidambaram, the son of senior Congress leader and former Union minister P Chidambaram, the ED has named his close associate S Bhaskararaman and some others in the chargesheet.

The court has listed the matter for hearing on March 16, the sources said.

Karti Chidambaram, 52, is a Lok Sabha MP from Sivaganga seat in Tamil Nadu and the agency has recorded his statement in the case a number of times.

The MP earlier has said the ED probe in this case was a "fishing and roving" enquiry and that he has submitted all documents to the agency. He had called the case "most bogus", asserting he was "certain that he never facilitated even a single Chinese national in their visa process, let alone 250."

He had said this case was an attempt to target his father P Chidambaram through him.

The money laundering case of the ED stems from a CBI FIR.

The probe pertains to allegations of Rs 50 lakh being paid as kickbacks to Karti Chidambaram and S Bhaskararaman by a top executive of Vedanta group company Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd (TSPL), which was setting up a power plant in Punjab, according to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR.

According to the CBI, the work for setting up the power project was being executed by a Chinese company and was running behind schedule.

A TSPL executive had sought re-issuance of project visas for 263 Chinese workers for which Rs 50 lakh allegedly exchanged hands, according to the CBI FIR.

The CBI had last year raided the premises of the Chidambaram family and arrested Bhaskararaman. It had questioned Karti Chidambaram.

This is the third money laundering probe against Karti Chidambaram with the INX Media and Aircel-Maxis cases being probed by the ED for some years now.

Karti Chidambaram has been chargesheeted in these two cases by the agency in the past.