By IANS,
New Delhi : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Friday filed a chargesheet against nine people, including former Commonwealth Games (CWG) Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi and two companies in a case related to alleged financial irregularities in the preparations for the October 2010 mega-event.Kalmadi and his aides have been accused of awarding a contract for TSR (timing scoring and result) system to Swiss Timing at exorbitant rates for the Games.
Special Judge Talwant Singh accepted the CBI chargesheet and said: “The chargesheet will be taken for cognizance May 23.”
The chargesheet, the first in the case, runs into 36 pages. It includes the names of Organising Committee (OC) heavyweights Kalmadi, Lalit Bhanot and V.K. Verma.
The others named are OC officials Surjeet Lal, A.S.V. Prasad, M. Jayachandran and three others who are absconding — Anil Madan, A.K. Reddy and Purshottam Arya. The two companies are AKR Construction and Swiss Timing.
Non-bailable warrants against the absconding accused have been issued, confirmed CBI.
Terming Kalmadi as the prime accused, the investigating agency said, “He is the mastermind behind the scam. He is the person who had supreme and overriding powers in every matter related to the mega event.”
All the accused have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) relating to criminal conspiracy, forgery, use of forged documents and criminal misconduct and under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The probe agency has listed more than 50 witnesses in the case.
Accepting the possibility of some more arrests, the CBI said, “We are still investigating the case. Supplementary documents and chargesheets can be filed.”
The officials added that they are investigating the role of government agencies in different projects, on the findings of Shunglu report.
The V.K Shunglu Committee was formed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh immediately after the Games. In its report, the committee slammed various Delhi civic agencies, and also pointed a finger at Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.
So far around 12 cases have been registered. In each case there would be a chargesheet, a senior CBI official told IANS.
“If there is any involvement of state government agencies in the irregularities in CWG projects, they will be investigated too,” the official added.
Five amongst the accused named in the chargesheet are in jail, three are absconding while Jayachandran, who is presently on bail in connection with a case of alleged irregularities related to AM films and AM cars, has not been arrested yet.
The chargesheet said: “The representatives of Swiss-based company and the two partners of Faridabad-based firm actively conspired with the accused officials for getting the contract awarded to Swiss Omega and received a payment of around Rs.23 crore for certain perfunctory services.”
But the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was not happy. It demanded the apex court monitor the corruption charges that have surfaced in the CWG as it did in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.
Meanwhile, earlier in the day Kalmadi filed an application before the court stating that the CBI in the Delhi High Court had said that it would file the chargesheet in the case Monday so the court should hold its order on his bail plea, which was put up for May 21.
He added that he has to make some additional arguments on the bail plea after the chargesheet is filed. The court accepted the application and fixed the matter for May 26.
The CBI has alleged that the accused officials colluded to award the contract for the TSR system to Swiss Timing at an inflated cost of Rs.141 crore, causing a loss to the tune of Rs.95 crore to the exchequer.
Kalmadi and his team are accused of pocketing the entire amount as kickbacks. Swiss Timing, in turn, outsourced parts of the contract to Gem International and AKR Constructions.
Kalmadi was arrested April 25.