A Delhi court has dismissed Karti Chidambaram's pre-arrest bail plea in an alleged money laundering case, according to ndtv.com.

The Enforcement Directorate had earlier registered a money-laundering case against the Congress MP for allegedly receiving Rs 50 lakh as bribe to facilitate visas for 250 Chinese nationals for a power project in Punjab 11 years ago when his father P. Chidambaram was Union home minister. The CBI had conducted searches on various premises linked to P. Chidambaram and Karti in Chennai and Delhi after registering a fresh graft case against the latter for the alleged irregularities in the issue of visas to Chinese nationals.

The CBI questioned Chidambaram for the third consecutive day on Saturday in connection with its probe into the alleged Rs 50-lakh bribery for issuance of 263 project visas to Chinese workers involved in the construction of the Talwandi Sabo power project in 2011.

The CBI had registered an FIR on May 14 against Karti and others over allegations of a Rs 50-lakh bribe being paid to him and his close associate S Bhaskararaman by a top executive of Vedanta group company Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd (TSPL) for re-issuance of Project Visa for 263 Chinese workers, the CBI FIR said.

TSPL was setting up a power plant in Punjab.

Projects visas were a special type of visas introduced in 2010 for the power and steel sector, detailed guidelines for which were issued during P Chidambaram's tenure as Union home minister. However, there was no provision for re-issue of project visas, the FIR has alleged.

The agency has already arrested Bhaskararaman in connection with the case.