Kalmadi to appear before CBI next week
By IANSWednesday, December 29, 2010
NEW DELHI - Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi will be appearing before the CBI for questioning next week in connection with irregularities in the conduct of the October games, an official said Wednesday.
We had summoned Kalmadi for questioning on Friday. But he told us he will not be able to come on that day. He has offered to come to CBI any time after January 3, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official told IANS.
On Dec 24, CBI had raided the Delhi and Pune homes of Kalmadi as well as the Games office here, two months after the mega event ended amid allegations of major financial irregularities.
His close aide Manoj Bhore’s house in Pune was also searched.
On Tuesday, the CWG OC secretary general Lalit Bhanot and Bhore were questioned at the CBI office here.
Kalmadi, a senior Congress leader from Maharashtra, is a member of the Lok Sabha, elected for the third time in 2009 from Pune. He has also served four terms in the Rajya Sabha.
The CBI is probing alleged irregularities in the Organising Committee’s contract of Rs.107 crore with a firm to procure the Time Scoring Board.
Kalmadi has claimed that he has done no wrong and was willing to face any inquiry.
Three other aides of Kalmadi — T.S. Darbari, Sanjay Mohindroo and M. Jayachandran — are already in custody in connection with another financial scam related to the Games.
The agency has so far filed three complaints in connection with the alleged irregularities in the CWG preparations. Two of the first information reports (FIR) are in connection with the contract to AM Films. The other one is related to Rs.107 crore spent on overlays at the CWG Village and other Games venues.
