NEW DELHI, Feb 20:
Trial in a Commonwealth Games related case, involving Suresh Kalmadi and nine others for allegedly causing a loss of over Rs 90 crore to the exchequer, commenced today before a Delhi court which recorded evidence of a woman officer associated with the 2010 sporting event.
Besides sacked CWG Organising Committee (OC) chairman Kalmadi, other prominent persons who are facing trial included former OC Secretary General Lalit Bhanot and OC’s former Director General V K Verma.
Special CBI Judge Ravinder Kaur, who had paved the way for trial by framing charges for offences punishable under the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act, recorded the testimony of first CBI witness Ananda Swaroop, Director of Publication in Communication in the 2010 CWG OC.
The recording of statement continued throughout the day during which Swaroop deposed about the expression of interest (EoI) which was uploaded on the OC’s website regarding the procurement of Timing, Scoring and Results (TSR) equipment.
Kalmadi and others are facing trial in a case relating to alleged “illegal” awarding of a contract to install TSR system for the CWG to Swiss Timing at inflated rates causing a loss of over Rs 90 crore to the exchequer.
During the probe into the case, Swaroop had told CBI that she had received a mail on March 21, 2009 from an official in the office of OC secretary general for uploading the attached documents relating to the EoI on the website.
The court, in its order on framing of charges, had also observed that Swiss Timing was selected on a “nomination basis” and false expression of interest was published to keep others away and the request for proposal was made restrictive.
All the accused are facing trial in the case for charges of criminal conspiracy, forgery, cheating and other offences entailing maximum punishment of life term.
The other accused, facing trial in the case, are OC’s 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 body.
Apart from the six, promoters of two construction firms – 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. AKR Constructions is also an accused in the case.
The court had framed substantial charges of misusing official position against the six former OC officials, who were public servants.
All the accused were charged under various sections of the IPC, including section 467 (forgery of a valuable security), which entails life term as maximum punishment.
The court had framed substantive charge under section 13 (2) read with section 13(1)(d) (criminal misconduct by public servants) of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Kalmadi.
Kalmadi is also facing trial for offences under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with sections 420 (cheating), 467, 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating),471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
Besides these, Kalmadi and other accused have also been charged for offences under sections 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and 511 (attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life) of the IPC.
After framing of charges, all the accused had pleaded not guilty. (PTI)
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