After Raja, it’s Kalmadi’s turn to be raided; too late, says BJP

Tightening the noose around Suresh Kalmadi, Congress leader and chairman of the Commonwealth Games organising committee (OC), the CBI on Friday conducted raids at his residential and office premises in Delhi, Mumbai and Pune besides grilling his three personal secretaries.

The OC has been accused of serious financial irregularities in the conduct of the Games held in October this year.

“The raids were carried out as part of the ongoing investigation into the awarding of a contract to a private firm for setting up a video screen during the Queen’s Baton Relay (QBR) in London last year at an inflated rate,” said Vineeta Thakur, CBI spokesperson, adding, “several incriminating documents were recovered during the operation”.

Three top OC officials have already been arrested in connection with the QBR. The CBI maintains the work was awarded to a London-based private firm on the basis of fake quotations and without following the standard procedure.

The CBI initiated action after it discovered that several important documents and files related to awarding contracts had gone missing.

The files contained important information on tendering, budgetary allocation and contract details, CBI sources said. They fear these files could have been destroyed or hidden in an attempt to obstruct investigation.

CBI officials said Kalmadi was questioned about some of the missing files from the OC headquarters in Delhi. He might be summoned to the CBI office again once the probe agency gets a report of the forensic experts on the seized laptops and computers.  

Kalmadi’s personal secretary PK Srivastava and Shekhar were also grilled by CBI officials during raids at the OC’s headquarters. Shekhar was later brought to the agency’s headquarters for further interrogation.

Sleuths also conducted searches at the premises of another personal secretary, Manoj Bhure, in Pune.

Kalmadi, who stands isolated politically after being forced to resign as secretary of the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP), however, put up a brave face.

“I’m innocent till proven guilty. Most importantly, I have not taken any decision alone. All the decisions were taken by other members of the executive board,’’ he told reporters after the raid.

Main opposition BJP said the raids have come very late. “We are not very happy with this delayed raid, but would certainly expect a prompt, fair investigation and nabbing of the culprit as promised by the prime minister,” BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

Reacting to the remarks, Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natrajan said, “I don’t believe that CBI works to anybody’s agenda.

The issue is that they are pursuing a particular inquiry, whatever work is being done, it is being conducted in accordance with that enquiry. We don’t expect the BJP to understand how the law takes its course.”