NEW DELHI: A Delhi court ordered the framing of charges against Congress MP Karti Chidambaram and six others in the Rs 50 lakh Chinese visa scam case, directing that they face trial for criminal conspiracy.
Special Judge (CBI) Vinay Singh passed the order on December 23, saying that the court had sufficient grounds to proceed against seven accused, including the Congress leader, for conspiracy.
The case stems from a charge sheet filed in October 2024 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which alleged bribery in facilitating visas for Chinese nationals in 2011, when P Chidambaram was the Union Home Minister.
Karti Chidambaram, the Lok Sabha MP from Sivaganga and son of P Chidambaram, is accused along with his alleged associate S Bhaskararaman, Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd (TSPL)—a Vedanta subsidiary—and Mumbai-based Bell Tools Ltd, through which bribe payments were allegedly routed.
According to the CBI, TSPL was setting up a 1,980 MW thermal power plant in Punjab and had outsourced work to the Chinese firm Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation. With the project running behind schedule and facing possible penalties, a TSPL executive allegedly approached Karti Chidambaram through Bhaskararaman to secure expedited approvals.
The agency has alleged that the accused devised a method to bypass limits on “project visas” by allowing the reuse of 263 visas allotted to Chinese officials.