M A I N   N E W S

CWG chargesheet: Kalmadi caused Rs 95-crore loss
Tribune News Service

Time matters n Case pertains to awarding of contract to a Swiss firm for the supply of TSR which caused exchequer losses of around Rs 95 cr n Others named in the CBI charge sheet include Lalit Bhanot V.K. Verma, Surjeet Lal, A.S.V. Prasad, M.  Jayachandran n Accused charged under laws relating to criminal conspiracy, forgery, use of forged documents and  corruption. n More than 50 witnesses  listed in the case

New Delhi, May 20
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today filed charge sheet against six officials of the Commonwealth Games (CWG) Organising Committee (OC), including the then chairman Suresh Kalmadi, three private persons and two companies in the Timing Scoring Result (TSR) case before Court of Special Judge CBI Talwant Singh at Patiala House here. The case pertains to awarding of contract to a Swiss firm for the supply of the TSR at an exorbitant price which caused the exchequer losses to the tune of around Rs 95 crore.

Besides Kalmadi, the 36-page charge sheet includes the names of Lalit Bhanot V.K. Verma, Surjeet Lal, A.S.V. Prasad, M. Jayachandran and three others - Anil Madan, A.K. Reddy and Purshottam Arya - who are absconding. All the accused have been charged under various sections of laws relating to criminal conspiracy, forgery, use of forged documents and criminal misconduct and corruption. The probe agency has listed more than 50 witnesses in the case while accepting the possibility of some more arrests and supplementary chargesheets.

Earlier, the CBI had registered a case on November 29 last after investigations revealed that the chargesheeted officials of the OC had conspired and indulged in forgeries and manipulations with an objective to award the TSR contract to Switzerland-based company at an exorbitant cost of Rs 157 crore (inclusive of taxes) as compared to a net bid of Spain-based company for Rs 62 crore (inclusive of taxes and sponsorships).

Thus, a wrongful loss of Rs 95 crore was caused to the OC and a corresponding gain to Swiss-based company and its representatives by wilfully eliminating all competitors of Swiss-based company.

Investigation has further revealed that the representatives of Swiss-based company and the two partners of Faridabad-based firm actively conspired with the accused officials for getting the contract awarded to Swiss-based company and received a payment of Rs 23 crore from Swiss-based company for certain perfunctory services.

Five arrested, including Suresh Kalmadi, at present are in judicial custody.