Neeraj Chauhan | TNN
New Delhi: The CBI finally caught up with Suresh Kalmadi. The agency on Monday arrested the chief organizer of Delhi’s graft-tainted Commonwealth Games for a case related to a Rs 141-crore contract for the in-stadia results and scoring system.
The timing-scoring-result (TSR) system contract to Swiss Timing Private Ltd, said CBI, was rigged to favour the firm and keep a competitor out despite a much lower bid of Rs 48 crore. Two Kalmadi close aides, secretary-general of the Organising Committee Lalit Bhanot, and its director-general V K Verma, are already in jail in this case.
Kalmadi’s arrest has come following a virtual avalanche of allegation against him and other notables who played a key role in organising the Games. Keen to send a message that it will not condone graft, Congress suspended the Pune party MP within hours of his arrest. Kalmadi has been charged for cheating, conspiracy and corruption. He will be produced in the court on Tuesday. More arrests are expected.
Kalmadi came to the CBI headquarters in his Audi car at around 10.30 am and was confronted with Surjit Lal and ASV Prasad, two more Organizing Committee officials belonging to its procurement and sports divisions, who were also arrested. Around 3.30pm, Kalmadi was told that he was being arrested. He has been questioned thrice earlier. He will be kept at CBI headquarters on Monday night.
The arrest of the influential Pune MP, seen to be well networked across party lines, indicates corruption is now seen as a serious enough concern to strip important leaders of any political immunity. BJP and the Left, however, were not satisfied with the arrest. Their leaders felt Kalmadi’s arrest had taken too long and demanded to know whether action would now follow against other political persons indicted by the V K Shunglu committee on Games-related irregularities.
As the case is developing, it seems some senior bureaucrats and senior sports and finance ministry officials may face some heat as they were part of a committee that cleared the financial aspects of the TSR contract.
CBI sources said Kalmadi was not cooperating with the probe and was giving evasive answers. The agency said the TSR deal caused a loss of Rs 95 crore in funds provided by the government to the OC as the tender terms were altered at the instance of Verma even after they were advertised.
Sports ministry wants IOA to sack Suresh Kalmadi as its president
The government moved swiftly to distance itself from Suresh Kalmadi by writing to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) seeking the Pune MP’s removal as the sporting body’s president. The sports ministry’s letter to IOA is intended to convey that the government is keen to initiate a clean up of sporting federations while cauterizing Kalmadi’s tainted legacy. The fallen sporting czar’s arrest could provide the ministry the leverage to break the resistance of sports federations, many headed by politicians. Kalmadi has ruled the roast in IOA with the help of an entrenched patronage system that encourages secretive and feudal functioning. Attempts to fix time-barred tenures has been challenged in courts and the Congress MP got a pliant International Olympic Committee to back his stand. P10 THE CHARGE Kalmadi arrested for “conspiracy to favour a private firm... by awarding contract of timing scoring and result system at inflated cost of 141cr”
Tender put out for scoring tabulation and display system on Oct 1, 2009
Bid called for experience in operating system and/or experience in major events
Bid tweaked by replacing and/or with ‘and’ so that experience of Asian Games, Olympics, Commonwealth Games became mandatory
Only Swiss Timing Pvt Ltd qualified, Spanish firm MSL’s bid rejected
Swiss firm got Rs 107cr deal, MSL’s bid was Rs 48 cr
Kalmadi aides V K Verma and Lalit Bhanot arrested for exhorbitant costs, restricting competition, causing loss
THOSE ARRESTED SO FAR IN CWG CASES Lalit Bhanot | FORMER SECRETARY GENERAL OF OC; V K Verma | EX-DG OF OC; T S Darbari | FORMER JT DG OF OC; M Jeychandran | EX-TREASURER OF OC; Sanjay Mohindroo | EX-JT DG OF OC; K U K Reddy | FORMER ADDITIONAL DG OF OC; Sanjay Deorukhkar | PS TO KALMADI; Sandeep Wadhwa | MD OF COMFORT NET FOR OVERLAYS CONTRACT; Praveen Bakshi | OVERLAYS SUPPLIER ALSO HELD ON MONDAY Surjit Lal | DDG PROCUREMENT, OC ASV Prasad | JT DG SPORTS ‘COMPETITION WAS ELIMINATED’
Timer contract was awarded by wrongful means, says CBI TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi: The CBI on Monday arrested the CWG Organising Committee Chief Suresh Kalmadi in relation to a Timing-Scoring-Result contract and agency sources claimed that Kalmadi and his aides allegedly threatened members of the tender evaluation committee.
The accused persons including Kalmadi had conspired with AKR Constructions (Indian branch of Swiss Timing) and the contract was awarded by wrongfully restricting and eliminating competition from other suppliers in premeditated and planned manner, the agency said. Kalmadi is likely to be booked in other cases as well. These include the contract with UK firms AM Car and Van and AM Films, both owned by Ashish Patel, in connection with the Queens Baton Relay function in London. He could also face the heat for a Rs 30 crore contract to Swiss-based Events Knowledge Services for games management and support as investigators have discovered that minutes of OC's executive management committee for award of work were forged.
Officials said that the TSR tender was to be submitted in three parts -- pre-qualifying, technical and commercial. Kalmadi and others framed the conditions in a manner that it helped Swiss Timing. Another firm, MSL from Spain, was eligible for the contract and it has quoted Rs 48 crore for the whole work but it was rejected. Had the contract been given to MSL (which provided TSR facility during Asian Games in China), there would not have been a loss of Rs 95 crore. Out of this money, Rs 23 crore was paid to AKR constructions as well, said a CBI source.
Kalmadi had been avoiding CBI's summons which asked him to join investigations from last two weeks. When asked about delay in arresting him, the officer said, "We were collecting foolproof evidence against him.'' Kalmadi's defence is that he was not alone in taking these decisions and there was a technical committee which had cleared them. On this, the officer said, "We have documentary evidence against Kalmadi.''
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