The Central Bureau of Investigation CBI officials seized his confidential documents during the searches at his residence, according to the Congress leader Karti Chidambaram.
Chidambaram wrote: In the course of this so-called raid, certain officers of the CBI seized my confidential and sensitive personal notes and papers pertaining to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology, of which I am a Member. He said that the central agency also seized the draft notes and questions to be asked to the witnesses summoned to the Committee and his handwritten notes related to the depositions made by witnesses to the Committee for reasons not known to the Agency. He added that these actions by the central agency are a direct assault on the democratic principles on which our Parliament is founded Citing breach of parliamentary privilege, Chidambaram urged the house to take immediate cognisance of the issue.
Chidambaram claimed in the letter that he and his family have been a target of a relentless campaign by the incumbent Central government over the last few years.
He noted that my family and I have been targets of a relentless campaign by the present Government and its investigating agencies over the past few years, which are trying to silence our voices of dissent by foisting one fake case after another. Such targeted intimidation of a member of the House is a breach of privilege. The CBI questioned Karti Chidambaram for nine hours about issuing visas to 263 Chinese nationals in 2011 when his father was the home minister of the country.
As per the CBI FIR, the case against Chidambaram and his close associate Bhaskaranaman is that of accepting Rs 50 lakh as a bribe from a top executive of Vedanta group company Talwandi Sabo Power Limited TSPL for the issuance of project visas for 263 Chinese workers of a firm that was executing the project. TSPL was setting up a power plant in Punjab.