Kalmadi evades questioning by CBI
By IANSTuesday, January 4, 2011
NEW DELHI - Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi, who was to be questioned by the CBI regarding the financial irregularities in the conduct of the October Games, evaded the investigating agency Tuesday, an official said.
“We have no idea when he (Kalmadi) will appear for questioning,” a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official told IANS.
Kalmadi was summoned for questioning Dec 31, 2010, by the investigating agency. But he offered to appear for investigation any time after Jan 3.
Commonwealth Games Organising Committee secretary general Lalit Bhanot and Kalmadi’s close aide Manoj Bhore were questioned by the CBI sleuths at its office here last week.
On Dec 24, the CBI raided the Delhi and Pune homes of Kalmadi as well as the Organising Committee’s office here, two months after the mega event ended amid allegations of major financial irregularities.
Bhore’s house in Pune was also searched earlier.
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 claimed that he had 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 of alleged irregularities in the CWG preparations. Two of the first information reports are about the contract to AM Films, a firm in London, for the Queen’s Baton Relay function.
The third is related to Rs.107 crore spent on overlays at the CWG Village and other Games venues.
