Karti Chidambaram calls CBI crackdown a witch hunt

CHENNAI: Sivagangai MP Karti P Chidambaram on Tuesday called the CBI crackdown against him on the Chinese Visa case a witch hunt and said that he was “not associated with the visa issue directly, indirectly, vicariously or even telepathically.”

Alleging that the central government was using its agencies again to “accuse me of a malicious and completely fabricated charge, ” Karti, who is returning from his fortnight-long overseas trip to Europe, said, “In the last 7 years, I have been raided six times, without cause or evidence by the central government’s agencies, which have sadly become a single party’s machinery to fulfill its political vendetta. Professionals associated with me are being targeted and harassed. Their lives have been wrecked and freedoms are taken away, just like mine have been these last many years.”

“My travel has been restricted and I have been made to do rounds of the courts even to visit my daughter at her university. I have full faith in the judiciary of our great country and trust the institution to stand by the truth, ” he added. “If this is not harassment, not a witch hunt, then what is?” he wondered, in a statement.

“I am not associated with this visa issue directly, indirectly, vicariously or even telepathically: The allegations against me by the CBI are ludicrous, to say the least. I categorically deny all of them, ” said son of former union finance minister P Chidambaram.

“I have no relationship whatsoever with any of the corporate entities mentioned in the FIR in which I have been named as an accused. I am neither aware of them, nor have I ever been associated with them or any of their representatives in any manner. I say with certainty that I have never facilitated even a single Chinese national in their visa process, let alone 250,” the Sivagangai MP claimed, adding that he has no knowledge of the procedures, process, es and formalities that need to be fulfilled in order to obtain visas related to project work in India. “I know no person who has the authority to issue such visas. I have also never known the person (now deceased) whose alleged action triggers this charge. He has never been examined by the CBI, and now, never can be,” he added.

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