Suresh Kalmadi was Chairman of the Commonwealth Games organising committeeSacked Commonwealth Games Chairman Suresh Kalmadi was remanded on 4th May as investigations into corruption continue.
Kalmadi was originally arrested on 25th April, charged with conspiracy in the awarding of commercial contracts for the Games.
A Delhi court also sent two others to judicial custody until May 18th after India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said that important witnesses had yet to be examined.
The Commonwealth Games, which were held in October 2010, were marred by allegations of corruption and incompetence. Photographs that appeared in the media just weeks before the Games started showed the athletes accomodation to be filthy, and an arena footbridge collapsed, injuring dozens.
The Games, which eventually cost India US$6 billion, ran hugely over budget, and it has been suggested that up to US$1.8 billion of Games money was misappropriated.
Soon after the Games were finished, Kalmadi, who was also a Congress Party MP for Pune, resigned from his post in the party. In January, he, and the Games Secretary General Lalit Bhanot were sacked. In April, Kalmadi was arrested for allegedly awarding illegal contracts to a Swiss firm for a Timing-Scoring-Result (TSR) system.
According to the CBI, the committee for short-listing prospective bidders was handpicked, and the contract that was eventually agreed to was done so at an 'inflated cost'.
The CBI said officials in Kalmadi's organizing committee “conspired with representatives of the private firm in Switzerland, and the contract for timing, scoring and results was awarded by wrongfully restricting and eliminating competition from other suppliers in a premeditated and planned manner.”
There is also an investigation into contracts awarded at a 2009 event in London which marked the start of a baton race across Commonwealth countries.
Kalmadi's case is one of a series of corruption scandals that has hit India in recent months, and threatened the reputation of Prime Minister Monmohan Singh.
On 25th April, the CBI charged the daughter of one of Singh's major allies with working to receive kickbacks from a 2008 sale of mobile phone licenses.
Kanimozhi, who goes by one name, is an MP, and daughter of Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi. Karunanidhi is also head of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party, which is in coalition with Singh's Congress party.
The mobile phone investigation has become known as the 2G spectrum scam, and is related to the sale of mobile phone licenses in 2008 at 2001 prices.
The former telecommunications minister Andimuthu Raja, two ministry officials and six company executives are already facing charges for having entered into a conspiracy to award the phone permits to ineligible companies. A second group of co-conspirators was recently named, including Kanimozhi. She is expected in court on 6th May.
India's chief auditor reported shortly after the Games ended that mobile-phone airwaves were sold for an 'unbelievably low' price: perhaps a tenth of their value. He put the potential loss to government income at about US$31 billion.
Many believe that corruption is holding India's growth back. Speaking on 3rd May, executive director of KPMG India, Shashank Karnad said India was on the cusp of high economic growth, but that it was being held back by large-scale fraud. A December 2010 report by JP Morgan said investors in Indian shares consider corruption as much of a barrier to economic progress as inflation.
Sources: BBC News, Bloomberg, IndiaInfoLine, The Hindu Times, The Times of India
Kalmadi was originally arrested on 25th April, charged with conspiracy in the awarding of commercial contracts for the Games.
A Delhi court also sent two others to judicial custody until May 18th after India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said that important witnesses had yet to be examined.
The Commonwealth Games, which were held in October 2010, were marred by allegations of corruption and incompetence. Photographs that appeared in the media just weeks before the Games started showed the athletes accomodation to be filthy, and an arena footbridge collapsed, injuring dozens.
The Games, which eventually cost India US$6 billion, ran hugely over budget, and it has been suggested that up to US$1.8 billion of Games money was misappropriated.
Soon after the Games were finished, Kalmadi, who was also a Congress Party MP for Pune, resigned from his post in the party. In January, he, and the Games Secretary General Lalit Bhanot were sacked. In April, Kalmadi was arrested for allegedly awarding illegal contracts to a Swiss firm for a Timing-Scoring-Result (TSR) system.
According to the CBI, the committee for short-listing prospective bidders was handpicked, and the contract that was eventually agreed to was done so at an 'inflated cost'.
The CBI said officials in Kalmadi's organizing committee “conspired with representatives of the private firm in Switzerland, and the contract for timing, scoring and results was awarded by wrongfully restricting and eliminating competition from other suppliers in a premeditated and planned manner.”
There is also an investigation into contracts awarded at a 2009 event in London which marked the start of a baton race across Commonwealth countries.
Kalmadi's case is one of a series of corruption scandals that has hit India in recent months, and threatened the reputation of Prime Minister Monmohan Singh.
On 25th April, the CBI charged the daughter of one of Singh's major allies with working to receive kickbacks from a 2008 sale of mobile phone licenses.
Kanimozhi, who goes by one name, is an MP, and daughter of Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi. Karunanidhi is also head of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party, which is in coalition with Singh's Congress party.
The mobile phone investigation has become known as the 2G spectrum scam, and is related to the sale of mobile phone licenses in 2008 at 2001 prices.
The former telecommunications minister Andimuthu Raja, two ministry officials and six company executives are already facing charges for having entered into a conspiracy to award the phone permits to ineligible companies. A second group of co-conspirators was recently named, including Kanimozhi. She is expected in court on 6th May.
India's chief auditor reported shortly after the Games ended that mobile-phone airwaves were sold for an 'unbelievably low' price: perhaps a tenth of their value. He put the potential loss to government income at about US$31 billion.
Many believe that corruption is holding India's growth back. Speaking on 3rd May, executive director of KPMG India, Shashank Karnad said India was on the cusp of high economic growth, but that it was being held back by large-scale fraud. A December 2010 report by JP Morgan said investors in Indian shares consider corruption as much of a barrier to economic progress as inflation.
Sources: BBC News, Bloomberg, IndiaInfoLine, The Hindu Times, The Times of India
For more information, please see the Menas ACCS website, here.
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