BY IANS,
New Delhi: Commonwealth Games organising committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi Saturday denied allegations of illegal money transfer to a London-based firm and said he was pained by the “baseless allegations of corruption”.
“We have not paid 25,000 pounds to anyone,” Kalmadi told reporters at a press conference here to clarify the organising committee’s stand following the allegations of corruption that surfaced Friday.
He said the London firm was picked after a tender process.
The London scandal surfaced after the Deputy High Commissioner of India in London, Rajesh N. Prasad, wrote a letter to the sports ministry about allegations of corruption made by the British government, which said that 25,000 pounds sent from the CWG in India to a company, AM films, in Britain, was unaccounted for.
The British government raised the issue after it followed the money trail from the CWG accounts in India to AM Films. The UK tax office then wrote to the Indian High Commission in June and launched an investigation.
Lalit Bhanot, secretary general of the OC, has denied all charges, and said: “No improper payments were made to any UK firm and all money was paid after RBI’s clearance.”