Visa scam case: CBI grills Karti for the 2nd day

May 27, 2022 11:59

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday started questioning Congress MP Karti Chidambaram for the second consecutive day in connection with an alleged scam pertaining to the issuance of visas to 263 Chinese nationals in 2011 when his father P Chidambaram was home minister.

Karti reached the CBI headquarters around 9.30 am and deposed before the investigators.

Before joining the probe, Karti wrote a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, mentioning "I am distressed to bring the matter of grave importance to your urgent notice.

"This issue concerns my rights and privileges as a Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha). Over the course of the past few years, my family and I have become targets of a relentless campaign by the present Government and its Investigating Agencies who are trying to silence our voices of dissent by foisting one fake case after another. Such targeted intimidation of a Member of the House amounts to a breach of privilege," reads the letter.

The letter further mentioned that he was becoming a victim of a grossly illegal and patently unconstitutional action.

"Shockingly, even my draft notes and questions which I had intended to ask witnesses summoned to the Committee, were also seized. Furthermore, my handwritten notes pertaining to the depositions made to the Committee by Witnesses were also seized - for reasons best known to the Agency," stated the letter.

Karti further mentioned in the letter that the actions by the CBI interfered with his parliamentarian duties and urged for immediate cognizance of the issue citing a breach in parliamentary privilege as a pivotal reason.

The CBI had questioned Karti for more than eight hours on Thursday when he joined the probe for the first time following a special court direction which had ordered him to join the investigation within 16 hours of his arrival from the United Kingdom and Europe, where he had gone with the permission of the Supreme Court and the special court.

Earlier in the day, a Delhi court granted him interim protection from arrest till May 30 in a case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Chinese Visa case. -- ANI

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