Fresh CBI searches related to alleged bunglings in Commonwealth Games overlays have revealed that the Organising Committee was given Rs 512 crore of the allocated Rs 687 crore. The remaining money,according to CBI sources,is still lying unutilised with the Ministry of Sports. With this,the role of officials of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has also come under the scanner. The CBI searched the International Sports Division (ISD) at Lodhi Colony. During the day-long searches,the sleuths seized documents from the offices of private companies and ISD. The CBI team asked us to provide the documents. (These) were given to them. The agency was also trying to understand the process of approval of the overlays budget, said a senior official at the ISD. The searches at 10 premises in Delhi and NCR came a day after OC chief Suresh Kalmadi was questioned. The agency has also registered a fourth FIR naming Games Director General V K Verma and four companies involved in overlays work. The agency claimed that the budget for overlays work was inflated to Rs 687 crore from Rs 221 crore. The CBI named the four companies as GL Meroform,owned by Binu Nandu and his wife Roopana; Nussil India,run by Sandeep Wadhwa; Pico-Deepali,owned by BJP leader Sudhanshu Mittals nephew; and ESG Arena DArt. Speaking to Newsline,Verma expressed surprise at being named in the FIR. I was not looking after the allocation of overlays and had no business with it. It was not my subject. The CBI,in the past,did not ask me any details about the overlays contracts. CBI spokeswoman and DIG Binita Thakur said: We have registered a fresh case. The DG and others entered into a criminal conspiracy with the owners of the private companies to award contracts for overlays for different venues of CWG-2010 at exorbitant rates.
