The Delhi High Court disposed of Karti Chidambaram petition as infructuous in a money-laundering case linked to the Chinese visa scam, after charges were framed in the connected Central Bureau of Investigation case.
NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court closed proceedings in a petition filed by Congress MP Karti Chidambaram seeking an order to postpone the hearing on framing of charges in a money-laundering trial linked to the alleged Chinese visa scam. The Sivaganga MP had asked that the hearing be deferred until charges were framed in the connected scheduled offence the visa scam probe by the CBI.
Senior counsel for Karti told the court that the petition had become infructuous because the trial court had already framed charges in the CBI case.
He said,
“The matter has become infructuous. So it may be disposed of as infructuous as this stage,”
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma ordered the case disposed of.
Karti had filed the petition in April 2025 challenging the trial court’s March 28, 2025 order dismissing his application to defer arguments on charges until any charges were framed against him in the CBI case. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) opposed the plea, saying the trials in the scheduled offence and the money-laundering case were proceeding independently.
In his petition, Karti contended that the ED’s prosecution was unsustainable if the accused were discharged or acquitted in the scheduled offence or if that offence were quashed, because a money-laundering prosecution depends on the existence of the predicate offence.
He also argued that to assert a defence of non-existence of proceeds of crime or non-commission of any scheduled offence, he might be compelled to disclose his defence in the scheduled offence case an issue the trial court, he said, had not adequately considered.
Background : The Chinese Visa Scam
The ED registered a money-laundering case against Karti Chidambaram and others arising from allegations about issuance of visas to 263 Chinese nationals in 2011, when his father P. Chidambaram was Union Home Minister. The ED’s case, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), followed a recent FIR by the CBI in the same matter.
In October 2024, the CBI filed a charge sheet against Karti and others over alleged bribery in facilitating visas for Chinese nationals related to Talwandi Sabo Power Limited (TSPL). On December 23, 2025, a trial court ordered framing of charges of criminal conspiracy and corruption against Karti and six others, finding “prima facie” material to frame charges under IPC Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) and Sections 8 and 9 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Karti’s challenge to the framing of those corruption and conspiracy charges in the CBI case remains pending before the high court.
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