CBI arrests Karti Chidambaram’s CA, likely to quiz him about Mumbai ‘shell co’

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) late Tuesday night arrested S Bhaskararaman, chartered accountant and alleged front man of Congress MP Karti Chidambaram.

The agency arrested Bhaskararaman from Chennai at around 2 a.m after his brief questioning in connection with a fresh bribery case registered against Karti Chidambaram.

Bhaskararaman is a co-accused in the case. The agency is likely to confront Bhaskararaman with Karti Chidambaram, said people in the know. Bhaskararaman is also likely to be quizzed about an alleged shell company (Mumbai based) used to allegedly receive an illegal gratification of Rs 50 lakhs for Karti Chidambaram.


The agency, in its fresh FIR, has alleged that Karti Chidambaram received an ‘illegal gratification of Rs 50 lakh to illegally facilitate visas for 263 Chinese nationals’ to complete a power project in Punjab.

It might be mentioned here that Bhaskararaman is also a co-accused along with Karti Chidambaram in the INX media case.

In the instant case the CBI has alleged that Karti ‘misused his influence’ in the home ministry in 2011 and ‘conspired’ with co-accused to devise a “back-door way to defeat the purpose of ceiling” on work permits imposed by the ministry, CBI has alleged. Karti’s father and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram was home minister in 2011. P Chidambaram has not been named as an accused in the FIR.