A special CBI court in Delhi on May 19 remanded S. Bhaskararaman, an alleged associate of Sivaganga MP Karti Chidambaram, to four days in the agency's custody in a case related to a bribes for visa scam, allegedly perpetrated in 2011.
The CBI had sought Mr. Bhaskararaman’s custody for 14 days, citing that he was Mr. Karti Chidambaram’s chartered accountant and thus had information relevant to the case, about which he needed to be interrogated.
Special CBI judge Prashant Kumar agreed that Mr. Bhaskararaman needed to be interrogated, especially given that the CBI’s probe was at an initial stage, but granted the agency his custody for only four days.
After this, the agency would have to produce him before the court again.
Even though the CBI argued that it needed to extract relevant information from Mr. Bhaskararaman, his counsel opposed its plea, saying that all required information had been obtained by it during the INX Media case investigation.
The CBI has registered an FIR against Mr. Karti Chidambaram, Mr. Bhaskararaman, one other person, two private companies and other unknown public officials and private persons in the bribes for visa case.
Thermal plant installation
The agency has said that the scam was allegedly perpetrated in 2011 when P. Chidambaram was the Union Home Minister. A Mansa-based company, M/s Talwandi Sabo Private Limited, was engaged in setting up a 1980 MW thermal power plant at Mansa, Punjab, at the time. The company had outsourced the work to Chinese company, M/s Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation.
Given that it was running behind schedule, the Chinese firm wanted to bring in more Chinese nationals to finish the work on it, for which project visas were required over and above the ceiling imposed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The Mansa-based company had thus made a request to allow this in July 2011, which was approved within a month, the CBI said, alleging that Mr. Bhaskararaman had discussed the matter with the then Home Minister and demanded ₹50 lakh illegal gratification for ensuring the approval.
