CBI quizzes Kalmadi aides

Two close aides of Commonwealth Games Organising Committee Chief Suresh Kalmadi, Manoj Bhure and Lalit Bhanot, were questioned today by the Central Bureau of Investigation about irregularities in awarding contracts during the Queen’s Baton Relay in London.

CBI had earlier registered a case against Bhanot, the secretary general of the CWG OC for alleged irregularities in a contract for the Games result update system.

Bhure, Kalmadi’s private secretary, whose house was searched by the CBI recently, was called for questioning this morning regarding the case involving UK-based A M Films. Kalmadi is likely to be summoned by CBI later this week.

According to CBI sources, Bhanot was quizzed about documents that the investigating agency claims are missing.

CBI has so far registered three cases in connection with the alleged irregularities in CWG and had searched the houses of OC Director General V K Verma and Bhanot on November 30. While one of the cases is related to a Rs 107-crore deal with a Swiss time-keeping firm, two other are were in connection with the contracts given to AM Films for the Queen’s Baton Relay.

The CBI had arrested OC’s joint director general T S Darbari, deputy director general Sanjay Mohindroo and former treasurer Jayachandran for alleged complicity in these deals.