The Delhi High Court on Wednesday has adjourned the hearing on the anticipatory bail plea of Congress MP Karti Chidambaram for June 24, due to the absence of Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal for arguments, owing to Covid.
Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta adjourned the hearing after recording the submissions of Advocate Arshdeep Singh, who submitted that Kapil Sibal is down with Covid and asked for another date for the hearing. The bench allowed the request.
Earlier, another bench of justice Poonam A Bamba had considered the matter at length and reserved the order on the anticipatory bail plea. However on June 10, the lawyers representing the Congress leader informed Justice Bamba of a significant development in the matter, following which Justice Bamba released the matter and it was listed for further hearing on Wednesday, June 15.
On June 3, a special CBI court denied the anticipatory bail request of Congressman and others who are being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case involving the issuance of Chinese visas. Special Judge MK Nagpal had dismissed the politician’s pre-arrest bail application noting their criminal history.
The ‘Chinese Visa Scam’ case
The CBI registered a case against Karti Chidambaram, his chartered accountant S Bhaskararaman, Vikas Makharia, then associate vice president of thermal power plant Talwandi Sabo Power, Bell Tools Limited, and unknown public servants in connection with a Rs 50 lakh alleged bribery case for clearing visas of Chinese nationals working at Punjab’s Talwandi Sobo Power Ltd during the UPA government.
According to the CBI FIR, as the power plant was running behind schedule, Makharia approached the Congress MP through his close associate Bhaskararaman and the two devised a back-door way to defeat the purpose of the ceiling (maximum of project visas permissible to the company’s plant), and outsource more from Chinese company Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation (SEPCO,) in exchange for a bribe.
The incident reportedly took place in 2011 when P Chidambaram was the Union Home Minister. A special type of visa called a project visa was introduced in 2010 for the power and steel sector, for which detailed guidelines were issued during P Chidambaram’s tenure but there was no condition for reissuing of project visas, the CBI alleged.
(With inputs from ANI)
