Rejecting the defence contention that sacked Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadis arrest and custody were illegal,a Special CBI Court on Wednesday sent him and two other OC officials to judicial custody for 14 days. Kalmadi,former OC Joint Director General (Sport) A S V Prasad and Deputy Director General (Procurement) Surjit Lal were arrested for alleged anomalies in the Timing-Scoring-Result (TSR) system contract. They were taken to Tihar jail,where several high-profile accused including former telecom minister A Raja are lodged. Defence counsel Nitin Desai mentioned Section 57 of CrPC and Art 22 of the Constitution and argued that an arrested person cannot be kept in custody for over 24 hours without being produced before a court. Noting that the decision to award the TSR contract was taken by the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs,defence counsel Hitesh Jain said: Since there are no imperative grounds of arrest,the arrest is illegal. Special Judge Dharmesh Sharma rejected the defence contention after the CBI submitted the case diary and arrest memo signed by two witnesses to prove the legality of the custody.
