CWG scam: Countdown begins to Kalmadi chargesheet

Bhanot and Verma are under arrest in the TSR case and the CBI is required to chargesheet them soon.

The chargesheet against Kalmadi will be filed in the Rs 141-crore Time Scoring and Results (TSR) scam,which was the third case booked by the CBI among the clutch of 12 cases filed so far in the Games probe. It is understood that the agency proposes to file around 20 cases.

Sources said legal opinion is awaited on whether officials of private companies like Gem International and AKR Construction should be chargesheeted as absconding accused or their names be included in a supplementary chargesheet. Proprietors of both the firms — AK Madan and AK Reddy,respectively — are absconding.The CBI doesn’t want a repeat of its failure to file a chargesheet within the deadline against Sanjay Mahendroo and TS Darbari in connection with the AM Films case. The two were consequently released on bail and the CBI is still awaiting receipt of documents from London for filing a chargesheet in that case. Officials said that Kalmadi,too,will be chargesheeted in the AM Films case.

In their statements,two serving OC officials have alleged that Kalmadi “coerced” them into favouring Swiss Timing-Omega for the TSR contract and that he was personally involved in the negotiations from 2007 onwards.

The CBI has also recorded statements of two other former OC officials V K Gautam and Sujit Panigrahi who wrote dissent notes during the TSR negotiations and subsequently resigned in protest against the manner in which the single-vendor contracts were being signed.

The CBI,while arresting Kalmadi,said that they had calculated a Rs 95-crore loss in the TSR contract,which is the difference in the value of the contract eventually signed with Swiss Timing-Omega and the offer the OC received from the competing Spanish firm,MSL Software. The CBI has claimed that the OC “pre-selected” the Swiss company and tinkered with specifications to ensure that it alone qualified for the bid.

Having got the Rs 141-crore contract (including taxes),the Swiss firm subcontracted part of it to its Indian partner,Gem International,which,in turn,outsourced Rs 13 crore-worth of contracts to the Hyderabad-based AKR Construction. The CBI says there is evidence to show that AKR Construction raised fictitious bills to show execution of works.