Monday, April 25, 2011

Suresh Kalmadi


Suresh Kalmadi
Former Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi was finally arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday afternoon in relation to irregularities in the conduct of the sporting event last year.


Kalmadi was arrested by the CBI after being quizzed in the morning for irregularities in the Queen's Baton Relay event held in London before the Games and also for those in the Rs 107 crore contract awarded to a Swiss time keeping company.


He will be produced in court on Tuesday, a CBI spokesperson said.


Close aides -- former OC secretary general Lalit Bhanot and former director general V K Verma -- were arrested in February for the time deal.


The CBI asked Kalmadi to appear before it on Monday to clarify new issues which surfaced during the visit of the agency's officials to London in connection with Queen's Baton Relay scam.
Kalmadi had expressed his inability to appear before the CBI citing his foreign visit, saying he would return home only after April 19. But even after returning from his visit abroad, he did not turn up before the sleuths saying he was still not in Delhi, sources said.


The CBI conveyed to him to appear before it on April 25 for clarifying details gathered during the trip of two-member team to London in connection with cases related to alleged irregularities in hiring AM Films and AM Car and Van Hire Limited during QBR held in 2009, sources in the agency said.
The team managed to speak to the London-based owner of both the companies – Ashish Patel – who has given a lot of information and documents with regard to the allegedly overvalued deal.


The documents and records made available by Patel will be provided to the CBI officially in reply to their Letter Rogatory issued to British Authorities, sources said.


AM Car and Van Hire company in London was engaged during Queen's Baton Relay in 2009 to provide services like taxis for the guests and OC members. The AM films was hired to provide display monitors during the event.


The team had also questioned other companies which were in fray for the lucrative contract, they said.


The agency sent a two-member team comprising Additional Director V K Gupta and DIG S K Palsania to London which got "clinching" details about the payments made to the two companies allegedly with the sanction of Kalmadi, they said.
CBI sources said the team now wants Kalmadi to reply to the new pieces of information on the monetary transactions with the two companies.


Monday was the third time Kalmadi appeared before the CBI to face questions about Games irregularities.

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