CWG scam: Kalmadi, 2 others sent to judicial custody

A Delhi court today remanded sacked CWG Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi and two others, arrested on charges of cheating, conspiracy and corruption in the award of Games related contracts, in 14 days judicial custody.

Special Judge Dharmesh Sharma sent Kalmadi, OC Joint Director General (Sport) ASV Prasad and OC Deputy Director General (Procurement) Surjit Lal to judicial custody till May 18 after the CBI said that some important witnesses are yet to be examined.

"The investigation of this case is at crucial stage. Some important witnesses are yet to be examined. The role of accused persons Kalmadi, Prasad and Lal is of serious nature," the CBI said.

The court accepted the plea of the CBI which said that the accused may be remanded to judicial custody in the "interest of effective and proper investigation of the case".

Kalmadi, Prasad and Lal were arrested by the CBI on April 25 for allegedly awarding illegal contract to a Swiss firm for Timing-Scoring-Result (TSR) system for the mega sporting event last year causing a loss of Rs 95 crore to the exchequer.

Earlier, the court had remanded the trio to eight days of CBI custody after the agency had submitted that various incriminating documents regarding their role in awarding the contract had been collected and they needed to be confronted with them.

The CBI had said that Kalmadi and his two associates were evasive and not co-operating with the probe agency.

Kalmadi, suspended Congress MP from Pune, and the two other officials have been booked under sections 120 B (conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the IPC besides other relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Kalmadi's arrest had come weeks after his close aide and OC Secretary General Lalit Bhanot and Director General VK Verma were taken into custody in the same case. Bhanot and Verma are presently in judicial custody.