CBI raids 11 premises, lodges cases against 4 Kalmadi aides

New Delhi, Nov 30 (PTI) The Central Bureau
Investigation (CBI) Tuesday booked Lalit Bhanot and V K Verma,
two top aides of Indian Commonwealth Games Organising
Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi, for criminal conspiracy and
cheating in connection with alleged irregularities in a Rs 107
crore contract with a Swiss time-keeping company.
Bhanot, OC Secretary General, and Verma, Director
General, were charged under sections 120B IPC (criminal
conspiracy), 420 IPC (cheating) and various sections of the
Prevention of Corruption Act besides Swizerland based firm
Swiss Timing Ltd and other unknown persons, a CBI spokesperson
said.
The agency carried out searches at 11 premises in the
national capital region including residences of both Bhanot
and Verma besides some other officials including R K Sacheti,
Joint Director General (Coordination) and Sangeeta Welingkar,
member of the Games Image and Look Group.
The agency claimed that "voluminous incriminating"
documents have been recovered during the searches.
"It is alleged that the accused officers abused their
official position and entered into criminal conspiracy with a
Switzerland-based company and other unknown persons to cheat
the Governemnt of India in awarding contract to the said
company for acquiring Timing, Scoring and Result (TSR) System
at exorbitant rates of Rs 107 crore thereby causing huge loss
to the government," the spokesman said.
He said the Expression of Interest (EOI) was
published announcing that only the Swiss firm met the laid
down criteria.
"Subsequently, Request for proposal (RFP) was issued
on October 1, 2009. This was surreptitiously amended on
October 4, 2009 thereby making the bids even more restrictive.
In response to RFP, two bids were received. However, the other
firm (Spain-based) was allegedly wrongfully eliminated at the
pre-qualification bid stage," the official said.
The searches were carried out in Gurgaon, Noida and
the national capital including at the OC headquarters, the
sources said.
This is the third FIR in connection with alleged
irregularities in CWG projects. The CBI had earlier registered
two FIRs in connection with alleged irregularities in Queen's
Baton Relay held in London last year and had arrested three
former Games officials.
This is the first time that premises of both Bhanot
and Verma, both considered close to Kalmadi, were searched.
While Verma has been questioned by the Enforcement
Directorate a couple of times, Bhanot was also on their radar,
the sources said.
Both Bhanot and Verma said all decisions were cleared
by the "entire Executive Board" of the OC.
"Whatever the decisions have been taken, it has been
taken jointly by the Board and it includes government members
as well as other members from various federations, Bhanot
said.
Describing the allegations against him as "totally
baseless", Verma said the Board has discussed the issue
"threadbare" before clearing it.