Court slaps cheating charges against Kalmadi, 9 others

New Delhi, Feb 4, 2013 (IANS)

A Delhi court Monday,14 feb 2013 formally slapped charges of forgery and cheating against former Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi and nine others in a corruption case related to the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The BJP welcomed the move and sought action also against Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for alleged lapses. The 10 accused were present in the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court when Judge Ravinder Kaur framed the charges. All accused are at present out of prison on bail. The court order came in a case against Kalmadi and his associates, including former Organising Committee secretary general Lalit Bhanot, in the case related to financial irregularities in awarding a Rs.141 crore contract for time, scoring and records system for the Games. The court earlier passed the order for framing the charges for illegally awarding the Rs.141 crore contract to Swiss firm Swiss Timing Omega that caused a loss of over Rs.90 crore to the exchequer. Kalmadi was arrested in the case April 26, 2011. The court had said that prima facie charges of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and offences under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act were made out. The court said: "Charges under Section 120B (criminal conspiracy), 201 (destruction of evidence), 420 (cheating), 467, 468, 471 (relating to forgery), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC and Section 13(1)(d) read with Section 13(2) (criminal misconduct by public servants) of the PC (prevention of corruption) Act are ordered to be framed against all the accused." The CBI, in its first charge sheet, described Kalmadi, who is a Lok Sabha member, as the prime accused and the mastermind in the corruption case related to financial irregularities in awarding the contract.

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Besides Kalmadi and Bhanot, the other accused in the case are the Organising Committee's former director general V.K. Verma, former director general (procurement) Surjit Lal, former joint director general (sports) A.S.V. Prasad and former treasurer M. Jayachandran. Promoters of two construction companies - P.D. Arya and A.K. Madan of Faridabad-based Gem

International and A.K. Reddy of Hyderabad-based AKR Constructions - are also accused in the case. Swiss Timing Omega is an accused too. Welcoming the court order, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sought to know if action would also be taken against Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for alleged irregularities during the 2010 Games. "While the BJP welcomed the belated charge-sheeting of Suresh Kalmadi", it would like to know about the other recommendations of the committee, which was constituted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to examine the entire CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) report pertaining to the Commonwealth Games, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters. The V.K. Shunglu Committee had in 2011 blamed Delhi Lt. Governor Tejinder Khanna and Dikshit for procedural violations and inadequacies in executing projects related to the Commonwealth Games.

On feb 19,2013 While top officials of the CWG organising committee - Suresh Kalmadi and Lalit Bhanot - are facing the heat, officials of the Sheila Dikshit-led Delhi government might come out clean in the scam soon. The CBI had registered 18 cases for alleged irregularities committed in organising the games, but has filed chargesheets in only four of them. In three other cases, the agency has recommended closure. Sources said closure reports are likely to be filed in six other cases as well. Most of the cases relate to city infrastructure are likely to be closed, added the sources.

The CBI is preparing to give a clean chit to the government officials despite the Prime Ministerappointed Shunglu Committee, which was looking into the CWG scam, recommending criminal action against them for their alleged involvement in misappropriation of funds.

The Shunglu Committee had made scathing observations against the Delhi government stating that a delay in decision making led to huge losses. Inflated cost estimates without competitive bidding, poorly conceived projects giving undue benefit to contractors and also suspected instances of cartelisation were indications of massive corruption. But the CBI probe suggests that the government officials got a raw deal from the committee. According to the agency, the committee had held officials responsible without taking their version into consideration. While the CBI agrees that there were irregularities in many projects, it hasn't found any incriminating evidence against the officials. Sources said it would be wrong to prosecute the officials because there were delays on part of the

organising committee which meant deadlines had to be met at all expense. "We will recommend departmental action against officials but prosecution is not possible due to lack of evidence," said a CBI officer. Defending the CBI probe, CBI spokesperson Dharini Mishra said: "Investigations in most of these cases are on. Unless a closure report is filed in court it would be incorrect to say that the cases have been closed. While the agency works hard to ensure prosecution of the accused, protecting innocent people is also important."