MP Karti Chidambaram moves HC seeking anticipatory bail in money-laundering case

He has challenged the trial court order denying him anticipatory bail in the matter The court had also dismissed the plea for seeking interim protection to approach the High court for anticipatory bailThe plea moved by the Congress leader has been listed for Monday for hearing before Justice Poonam A BambaCBI judge M K Nagpal of the Rouse Avenue Court on Friday had dismissed all three applications moved by Karti Chidambaram S Bhaskararaman and Vikas MakhariaThe Court had dismissed the bail plea in view of the alleged past involvement of Karti Chidambaram and S Bhaskararaman in INX Media and Aircel Maxis casesThe court also agreed with the argument of the Additional Solicitor General ASG that the investigation is in a nascent stage and the quantum of the alleged laundered amount may be more than 50 LakhAlso Read Chinese visa case Court rejects bail plea of Karti ChidambaramThe Special Judge had observed in the order This court is of the considered opinion that even while keeping aside the issue of applicability of bar and twin condition of Section 45 of PMLA the nature and gravity of alleged offences the nascent stage of investigation and also previous criminal antecedents of accused Kati Chidambaram and S Bhaskar Raman do not make it out a case for grant of anticipatory bail to applicants or any further protection for them to join the investigation of this case as it will seriously hamper the process and investigation Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal had argued there is no material against the accused No moneylaundering case is made out against the Karti Chidambaram Still they registered the ECIR The accused has joined the investigation and cooperating in the sameAdvocate Sibal had also argued that the alleged transaction is from 2011 and they registered the case after a lapse of a long time They had all the emails but did not investigate all these years There is the apprehension of the arrestOn the other hand the value of the alleged transaction is Rs 50 Lakh which is less than one crore in view of this fact he should be granted bail he arguedOn the other hand ASG S V Raju submitted that the bail application is premature as there is no material we have in this case We will investigate the case Still they have apprehension of arrest why do they have soTridip Pais appeared for S Bhaskar Raman and argued that his client is in CBI custody since 17 May There is no case is made out to arrest him in a moneylaundering case as there is no material as ED had submittedSenior Advocate Mohit Mathur argued on the bail plea of Vikas Makharia He submitted that no case is made out against him He should be granted anticipatory bail in a moneylaundering caseThe Enforcement Directorate ED has filed a moneylaundering case in an alleged Chinese visa scam involving Congress MP Karti Chidambaram officials said on WednesdayThe ED has filed a case under the criminal sections of the Prevention of moneylaundering Act taking cognizance of a recent First Information Report registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the case said the officialsIt is alleged that Karti received illegal gratification of Rs 50 lakh to illegally facilitate visas for 263 Chinese nationals to complete a power project in PunjabKarti misused his influence in the home ministry in 2011 and conspired with coaccused to devise a backdoor way to defeat the purpose of the ceiling on work permits imposed by the ministry CBI has alleged Kartis father and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram was home minister in 2011 P Chidambaram has not been named as an accused in the FIRBesides Karti four others have been booked by the CBI The four coaccused are Kartis chartered accountant S Bhaskararaman Vikas Makharia representative of Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd a Mansabased private company and Bell Tools Mumbai have been named The FIR also mentions unknown public servants and private individuals tooOn May 17 CBI arrested Bhaskarraman in the alleged visa scamThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever