New Delhi:
The survival skills that Suresh Kalmadi's political career is best known for were on full display today. He was being led into a Delhi court when a man hurled a slipper at him. Mr Kalmadi didn't miss a beat as the slipper missed him by inches and landed nearby. He continued towards court with a smile on his face.
The slipper-thrower, a lawyer named Manoj Sharma from Gwalior, was immediately detained. He has told the police he wants to fight corruption; the police in turn says it is assessing his mental stability.
In court as well, Mr Kalmadi stayed preternaturally calm as the CBI explained the evidence that led to his arrest yesterday. As Chairman of the Organising Committee for the Commonwealth Game, Mr Kalmadi is accused of corruption - of inducing and benefitting from it - by delivering inflated contracts to companies that charged exorbitant rates for equipment and services employed for the Games that were held in September in India.
The CBI says it is collecting evidence on a wide range of contracts to prove this. For now, it has targeted Mr Kalmadi for overpaying a Swiss firm 95 crores for timing and scorekeeping equipment that was used at different venues. Mr Kalmadi's lawyer, Hitesh Jain, passed the buck today to former Sports Minister MS Gill. "If you look at the decision-making process, the decision was ultimately taken by the Minister of Youth & Affairs, the then minister MS Gill, and no summons have been issued to him, no investigation, neither has he been called to record any statement," said Mr Jain.
The CBI, however, says two of Mr Kalmadi's former aides have confessed that he pressured them to ensure that Swiss Timing won the timing-scoring-results (TSR) contract, despite its noncompetitive prices.
And after the CBI described Mr Kalmadi's behavior as "elusive and non-cooperative," the court refused to grant bail to Mr Kalmadi and said he will stay in jail for eight days.
The CBI will use that time to interrogate Mr Kalmadi. However, he says that given the fact that senior government officers including Mr Gill were aware of the deals being signed, they must be questioned too.
The BJP meanwhile says that while Mr Kalmadi's arrest is "better late than never," he is being made a scapegoat. The party has said that Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit must resign, accepting responsibility for the corruption that became the main currency of the sporting event. Ms Dikshit says that's not necessary.
"Whatever behavior that has been shown against Kalmadi, it is on some basis. Without basis, anything doesn't happen. So we have to look into all this, and whatever will happen, I have repeatedly said and I will again say it, that whoever will be the culprit and whatever he has done, he will be prosecuted and punished, according to law," she said.
Once a political and indispensable heavyweight in Pune, Mr Kalmadi has been suspended by the Congress. His posters were defaced yesterday by a section of his partymen at the local Congress office. It is a tumultuous fall from grace for a man who has won three Lok Sabha elections from Pune, and has served four Rajya Sabha terms.
The CWG mess
A few weeks before the Games began, the media began reporting on what seemed to be systematic corruption among those in charge of organising the event. A glut of contracts hired the most expensive firms to provide equipment and services. Competitive bids were ignored. Mr Kalmadi denied all corruption charges, but he was also confronting questions about the overwhelming lack of preparedness for the Games. The budget for the event had been busted several times over. But there seemed to be little to show for it. Amid international criticism, Mr Kalmadi was sidelined by the government and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and the Army were asked to get the capital ready.
It was the Athletes Village that embarrassed India more than any other aspect of the Games. International delegates touring the venue found filthy toilets, dogs' paw prints on bedsheets and ceilings that were leaking water into the apartments.
What helped India recover from the PR nightmare was the spectacular Opening Ceremony. But the public had by then developed a strong distaste for Mr Kalmadi's efforts to assume centre stage. At the closing ceremony, as he delivered his speech, Mr Kalmadi was heckled. When he referred to Rahul and Sonia Gandhi, the Congress party president was seen shaking her head in disapproval. The Prime Minister hosted a tea reception for Indian athletes and pointedly excluded Mr Kalmadi from the guest list.
Investigation and arrest
As the CBI began a full-fledged investigation into the relentless corruption that the Games were embedded with, some of Mr Kalmadi's closest aides were arrested. They included Lalit Bhanot, who served as the Secretary General of the Organising Committee and V K Verma who was its Director General. The CBI questioned Mr Kalmadi three times and raided his homes and offices in Delhi and Pune to gather evidence that he had functioned as the Chairman of the Badmaash Company that had run the Games. Yesterday, after a fourth round of interrogation, he was arrested.
Investigators say they found it easiest to nail Mr Kalmadi for the 141-crore contract he gave to Swiss Timing for its timing equipment - the deal was inflated by 95 crores. But it's not the only case that the CBI hopes to use against the Lok Sabha MP.
Mr Kalmadi will have to explain why he chose AM Car and Films to provide taxis, portable toilets and big public TV screens for the Queen's Baton Relay that was held in London in September 2009. The function kick-started the Commonwealth Games and saw AM Cars and Films making huge profits. For example, the firm charged upto 500-1000 pounds a day for taxis. The owner, Ashish Patel, whose financial background was sketchy, had been paid large advances even without a signed contract. When asked why, Mr Kalmadi said there hadn't been enough time to process the formalities.
Mr Patel is now being urged by the CBI - which recently sent a team to London to interrogate him - to turn approver.