The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday, May 17, conducted searches at the premises of former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram. The searches reportedly came after the investigating agency registered a fresh case against the Congress leader's son and Member of Parliament (MP) Karti Chidambaram allegedly over certain foreign remittances to companies linked to Karti between 2010 and 2014. Speaking to PTI, officials said that the case was registered after allegations that Karti facilitated visa of 250 Chinese nationals after receiving illegal gratification of Rs 50 lakh.
The searches are being conducted at three locations in Chennai, three in Mumbai, one each in Karnataka, Punjab and Odisha, they added. P Chidambaram is said to be in New Delhi currently, while Karti is abroad and presently not in the country. Early on Tuesday, Karti, in a reference to the searches, tweeted, “I have lost count, how many times has it been? Must be a record.” In a tweet around 3 am, Karti Chidambaram said, “16/5/2017 will not be forgotten or forgiven!”
16/5/2017 will not be forgotten or forgiven!
— Karti P Chidambaram (@KartiPC) May 16, 2022
This was seemingly a reference to similar searches conducted by the CBI in 2017 against Karti and his father. At that time, media reports suggested that the raids were related to a particular deal which involved required permissions being given to a TV channel, and that the deal was linked to Indrani Mukherjee and her company INX Media. The allegations were that the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) cleared the deal at a much lower value at the behest of Karti Chidambaram.
At that time, reacting to the CBI raids, the former Finance Minister issued a statement hitting out at the Union government. "The government, using the CBI and other agencies, is targeting my son and his friends. The government's aim is to silence my voice and stop me from writing, as it has tried to do in the cases of leaders of the opposition parties, journalists, columnists, NGOs and civil society organisations. All I will say is I shall continue to speak and write," he had said.