Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court on Thursday granted interim protection to Congress MP Karti Chidambaram from arrest till May 30 in an alleged money laundering case registered in connection with an alleged Chinese visa scam.A day ago, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed the money laundering case against the Lok Sabha MP, his close aide S Bhaskararaman, and others in the matter related to facilitation of project visas for Chinese nationals for a power project of the Vedanta group in Punjab in return for bribes, at a time when his father was the union home minister.
Hours ago, the Congress MP reached the CBI headquarters to join the investigation into the alleged scam.A special court had ordered him to join the CBI investigation within 16 hours of his arrival from the UK and Europe, where he had gone with the permission of the Supreme Court and the special court itself.The CBI has also recovered 65,000 emails in the matter which will be used as evidence.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.According to the FIR, a Mansa (Punjab) based private firm, Talwandi Sabo Power Limited, took the help of a middleman and allegedly paid Rs 50 lakh to get the visas issued for the Chinese nationals which would help it in completing a project before the deadline.It has been alleged that senior Congress leader and former Union Minister P. Chidambaram allegedly helped the Chinese get visas by flouting rules.