CWG scam: Ready to face any inquiry, says Suresh Kalmadi

Pune: Suresh Kalmadi, sacked chairman of the Commonwealth Games (CWG) Organising Committee, today claimed that the officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), who conducted searches at his premises in the city recently, did not find anything incriminating against him.

"CBI officials came to my place. But what have they found? They could find only that is recorded in income tax returns filed by me. They have found nothing against me," the Congress MP, who returned last night from Bangkok, said while addressing party workers here.

Maintaining that he would cooperate with the investigating agency, probing the alleged irregularities in the conduct of the Commonwealth Games (CWG), Kalmadi said, "Everything is fine. I am ready for any enquiry and will answer all questions."

The CBI had on Tuesday searched three bank lockers of Kalmadi in Pune.

The searches began at 3 pm and continued late into the night. The CBI officers were accompanied by Kalmadi's wife.

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The lockers in ICICI and Saraswat bank were sealed by the investigation agency in December last year when it raided Kalmadi's house and business premises in the city.

Following the searches, sources told NDTV that an FIR was likely to be registered against Kalmadi in connection with the CWG catering deal.

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The catering contract for the Games Village reportedly caused the Organising Committee a loss of around Rs 24 crore. The Comptroller and Auditor General's scrutiny of the catering contract executed by Australian firm Delaware North has found that Kalmadi cancelled the company's initial tender overruling a specific warning note from the Organising Committee (OC). An internal note from the OC pointed out that re-tendering could mean higher costs. Kalmadi, however, insisted he cancelled the bid on the ground that earnest money was not deposited. Yet, the same firm got the bid again after the contract was tendered afresh at an enhanced cost.

Several of Kalmadi's top aides including Lalit Bhanot, the former Secretary General of the Organising Committee, and VK Verma, who was the Director General of the Organising Committee, have been arrested in the last few months for alleged financial irregularities in various cases pertaining to the sporting event.

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In November 2010, Congress axed Suresh Kalmadi as secretary of its Parliamentary Party. And then in January this year, he was fired as Chairman of the Organising Committee.  But Kalmadi, a seasoned politician known for his swagger and considerable clout in Pune, has so far remained defiant, insisting that he sees no reason for him to resign as the head of the Indian Olympic Association.

(With PTI Inputs)