Visa scam: Delhi court denies anticipatory bail to Karti Chidambaram in money laundering case

A Delhi court Friday dismissed the anticipatory bail plea of Congress MP Karti P Chidambaram and two others in a case registered by the Enforcement Directorate in the alleged Chinese Visas scam, saying the offence was of a “very serious nature”.

Special Judge M K Nagpal denied relief to Karti and also vacated the interim protection from arrest granted to the accused persons during the pendency of the application.

The court directed them to join the probe as and when they are called upon by the investigating officer.

The ED registered the money-laundering case against Karti and others in the alleged scam pertaining to the issuance of a visa to 263 Chinese nationals in 2011 when his father P Chidambaram was the home minister.

“The nature and gravity of the alleged offences, the nascent stage of the investigation, and also the previous criminal antecedents of the accused Karti P Chidambaram and S Bhaskararaman do not make it out a case for grant of anticipatory bail to the applicants or for any further interim protection to them for joining of the investigation of this case as it will seriously hamper the process and progress of the investigation,” the court said.

The court also noted there were four other cases - two by CBI and two by the ED concerning both alleged INX Media and Aircel-Maxis scams - pending before it and both Karti and Bhaskararaman were even arrested in one of such cases and were subsequently granted regular bail, though anticipatory bail was granted to them in the other cases.

It was further told by the Additional Solicitor General S V Raju that even in the previous cases, a similar modus-operandi was adopted in granting approvals for some financial transactions against the existing guidelines and policies for illegal considerations or bribes and Bhaskararaman was involved even in transactions of those cases for payment of a bribe to Karti Chidambaram for influencing his father, who was holding another portfolio of Union Minister at that time, for granting those approvals.

The judge said, therefore, the allegations in the CBI case, based upon which the ED lodged its case, cannot be brushed aside or taken lightly.

The court noted that sufficient evidence had already been collected in the CBI case to show the generation of proceeds of crime in the form of bribes amount.

“Therefore, it cannot be said that the applicants have been or are being roped in falsely in the above case by the CBI or even in the present case ECIR registered by the ED,” the judge said.

The court was further told by ED's Special Public Prosecutor N K Matta that the actual magnitude or volume of the processed or laundered amount of money in the case was yet to be established during the investigation and the bribe amount of Rs 50 lakh of the CBl case cannot be taken or considered as the basis of the present case.

The federal agency has filed its case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) taking cognisance of a recent first information report by the CBI in the same case.