Visa scam: Anticipatory bail plea of Karti Chidambaram adjourned after lawyer laid up with COVID-19

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing in the anticipatory bail plea filed by Congress Member of Parliament Karti Chidambaram in an alleged money laundering case stemming from allotment of Chinese visas [Karti Chidambaram v. ED]..Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta adjourned the matter after being informed that Senior Counsel Kapil Sibal, slated to appear for Chidambaram, was laid up with Covid-19.The Court posted the matter to June 24 after advocates Arshdeep Singh and Akshat Gupta shared the development on Sibal’s condition.Earlier, another bench of Justice Poonam A Bamba had reserved orders in the matter.However, Chidambaram’s lawyers had informed about a new development in the matter following which Justice Bamba released the matter and posted it for hearing before the vacation bench..[Chinese Visa Scam] Delhi High Court reserves order in plea by Karti Chidambaram for anticipatory bail.A special CBI court had, on June 3, rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Congress lawmaker and others who are facing probe by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case connected to allotment of Chinese visas.Special Judge MK Nagpal had dismissed the politician’s pre-arrest bail application noting their criminal antecedents."The nature and gravity of the alleged offences, the nascent stage of investigation and also the previous criminal antecedents of the accused Karti P Chidambaram and S Bhaskararaman do not make it out a case for grant of anticipatory bail to the applicants or for any further interim protection to them for joining of the investigation of this case as it will seriously hamper the process and progress of investigation,” the order held.It is alleged that Karti facilitated visas of 250 Chinese nationals after receiving illegal gratification of ₹50 lakh. On the basis of the case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the ED filed a money laundering case..Karti, however, maintained that nothing incriminating was found and no incriminating material was seized during the search proceedings against him.“The gist of the allegations in the subject FIR is that TSPL paid a sum of ₹50 lakh by cheque to BTL, Mumbai and, in turn, the said BTL paid ₹50 lakh by cash to S Bhaskararaman as gratification. There is no allegation that Bhaskararaman paid the whole or any part of ₹50 lakh to the applicant. There is no specific allegation that either Bhaskararaman or the applicant influenced any public servant or paid any gratification to any public servant. In fact, no overt act concerning the transaction in question has been attributed to or alleged against the applicant,” his plea argued.