CHENNAI: The CBI on Wednesday arrested chartered accountant S Bhaskararaman, a close associate of Lok Sabha MP Karti Chidambaram, a day after raiding the latter’s premises in connection with a Rs 50 lakh bribery case for clearing visas of 263 Chinese nationals working at a power plant in Punjab.
Bhaskararaman was arrested since he was not cooperating in the investigation, CBI sources said. He was later produced before a local CBI court, which issued a transit remand to fly him to New Delhi.
Bhaskararaman was among the five named in the first information report (FIR) in the case. Other booked include Karti, Vikas Makharia, representing Talwandi Sabo Power Limited, Mansa (Punjab); Bell Tools Limited, Mumbai (Maharashtra) and unknown public servants and private persons.The FIR alleged that Karti was approached through Bhaskararaman to get visas to bring in more Chinese professionals so as to expedite work on the thermal power plant.
The visas issued were beyond the ceiling imposed by the Union home ministry. Karti allegedly negotiated the Rs 50 lakh speed money deal through Bhaskararaman to provide the visas. The deal happened in 2011 when Karti’s father P Chidambaram was Union home minister at that point in time.