By IANS
Hyderabad : Police have registered a case against Indian cricket board chief Sharad Pawar and five sports officials for alleged misappropriation of funds during the third One-Day International match played between India and Australia here last month.
The Cyberabad police registered the case on a direction from a local court, which had passed the order Nov 2 on a petition by a former MP.
The case was booked at the Uppal police station against Pawar, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Niranjan Shah, Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) president G. Vinod Kumar, HCA secretary Shivlal Yadav and two others.
A metropolitan court on Nov 2 had ordered the Cyberabad police to register cases of cheating and misappropriation of funds against Pawar, also union minister for agriculture, Vinod Kumar, also state minister for labour, and others.
The court direction came in the wake of allegations that the cricket bodies had committed large-scale irregularities by selling tickets for the ODI in black market.
Former MP P. Radahakrishna had alleged that the BCCI and HCA officials misappropriated BCCI funds totalling Rs.120 million by selling complimentary tickets.
The match was played at the Rajiv Gandhi stadium at Uppal on the city outskirts Oct 5.
The stadium has a seating capacity of 41,000 but the HCA sold only 15,000 tickets and the remaining were issued as complimentary to different categories of people.
However, the petitioner claimed that BCCI and HCA officials made money by selling the complimentary passes.
Meanwhile, Vinod Kumar said HCA would challenge the lower court’s order in the Andhra Pradesh High Court. He reiterated that complimentary passes were not sold but were given to sponsors and others who were promoting the game.