Court frames charges against Kalmadi, 9 others
New Delhi : A Delhi court Monday framed charges against former Commonwealth Games (CWG) Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi and nine others for forgery, cheating and conspiracy in a corruption case related to the 2010 Delhi Games.
The 10 accused were present in the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court when judge Ravinder Kaur framed the charges.
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 had 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 and for offences under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act are 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 chargesheet, described Kalmadi, who is a Lok Sabha member, as prime accused and the mastermind in the corruption case related to financial irregularities in awarding the contract.
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. They are no more associated with the sporting organisation.
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.
File Photo : AFP