New Delhi: Congress MP Karti Chidambaram has written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla regarding his questioning by the CBI in the Chinese visa scam case, saying “gross violation of parliamentary privilege by the Central Investigation Agency”. Karti has alleged that during a raid CBI officials seized “highly confidential” personal notes and papers belonging to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology, and sought redress of what he said was a breach of his parliamentary privilege.
“I have written to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha that there has been a gross breach of parliamentary privilege by the CBI. The papers of my Parliamentary Committee which pertain to the IT Committee have been taken away during the search and seizure. No one has the right to take these confidential papers,” Karti told a news agency.
In his letter to Birla, Karti Chidambaram said, “I am writing to you now because I have become the victim of a highly illegal and clearly unconstitutional action.”
“The Central Bureau of Investigation raided my residence in Delhi under the guise of probing an 11-year-old decision of the government in which I have no involvement,” he said. During this so-called raid, some CBI officials confiscated my “highly confidential and sensitive personal notes and papers” belonging to the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Information and Technology, alleged Karti Chidambaram.
“Surprisingly, my draft notes and questions were also confiscated, which I wanted to ask the witnesses called in the committee,” he alleged. He claimed that his handwritten notes relating to the statements made by the witnesses to the committee were also confiscated for reasons best known to the agency.
Karti Chidambaram alleged that these actions of the CBI, in so far as they relate to “interference in my duties as an MP”, are a direct attack on the democratic principles on which our Parliament is founded.
