CWG scam: Emails doctored, Kalmadi aides arrested

New Delhi: It's official, says the CBI. The men who organised the Commonwealth Games colluded in systematic corruption.

The CBI has arrested T S Darbari and Sanjay Mahendroo, two of the men in charge of organising the Commonwealth Games. (Read: Who is T S Darbari?)
 
Darbari was Director General of the Organising Committee, and was a close aide of Suresh Kalmadi, who served as Chairman, and was booed at the Closing Ceremony as a public protest against the ubiquitous corruption of the Games.

Darbari has been arrested for forgery and cheating while handling the Queen's Baton Relay in London in September 2009.

In the absence of any contract, the Organising Committee paid 2,50,000 pounds to a London-based company named AM Films, whose owner, Ashish Patel, has a disconcerting business record.

Along with deputy director-general Sanjay Mahendroo and Patel, Darbari reportedly doctored documents to suggest that AM Films had been recommended by the Indian  High Commission in London to provide services like screens, taxis and portable toilets for the London event.

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In an interview to NDTV in July, Kalmadi said that there was no time to go through the necessary paperwork because the requests for the facilities that AM Films provided were demanded at the last minute by officials in London like the city's Mayor.

The CBI is investigating the different layers of corruption that seems to have been a byproduct of Team Kalmadi. The homes of Darbari and Mahendroo, as also the office of the Committee, were raided this morning by the CBI, and incriminating documents were recovered.

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Kalmadi was dismissed last week as the Secretary of the Congress Parliamentary Party. The Opposition has been attacking the government over the congenital corruption that became the trademark of the Games.