Karti Chidambaram's Pre-Arrest Bail Hearing In Visa 'Scam' On June 24

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday listed for hearing on June 24 the anticipatory bail plea of Congress MP Karti P Chidambaram in the alleged Chinese Visas scam case.

A hearing on the case was deferred by Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta upon a request for adjournment by the counsel for the Congress leader.

Lawyer Arshdeep Singh informed the court that senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who would represent Karti Chidambaram, was down with COVID-19 and was therefore unavailable.

Karti Chidambaram had approached the high court after his anticipatory bail plea and that of two others was dismissed by the trial court on June 3 on the ground that the offence was of a very serious nature.

ED has registered the money laundering case against Karti Chidambaram and others in the alleged scam pertaining to the issuance of a visa to 263 Chinese nationals in 2011 when his father P Chidambaram was the home minister.

The probe agency has said that the actual magnitude or volume of the processed or laundered amount of money in the case was yet to be established during the investigation and the bribe amount of Rs 50 lakh in the CBl case cannot be taken or considered as the basis of the present case.

The agency has registered its case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) taking cognisance of a recent first information report by the CBI in the same case.    

The ED had earlier before another bench opposed the anticipatory bail plea, saying he cannot file the application on a figment of imagination that does not show any genuine apprehension of his arrest.

The ED had said the application is premature as the investigation has not yet begun in the matter and even Karti Chidambaram has not been summoned yet. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)