DDCA rebuts allegations against Jaitley again

The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) today again strongly refuted AAP's allegations of financial bunglings by Finance Minister and its former chief Arun Jaitley, saying that these charges were completely baseless and without any substance.

For the second successive day, the entire top brass of the DDCA addressed the press conference where they made a point by point rebuttal of the alleged charges made by the AAP against Jaitley.

AAP today alleged huge financial bunglings in DDCA during Jaitley's 13-year-old tenure as its chief, saying large amounts were siphoned off through fake companies besides other irregularities including in team selection.

DDCA's working president Chetan Chauhan said that Jaitley had in fact worked for the betterment of cricket in general and had made the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium into a world class facility and it was uncalled for to drag him into this controversy.

Chauhan read out the break-up of expenses incurred during the renovation of Feroz Shah Kotla to substantiate that there were no siphoning of funds during Jaitley's tenure as DDCA president.

"We spoke yesterday and clarified a few points at our end. We are not hiding anything nor will we hide," he said.

"Yesterday I said the cost of building stadium is Rs 114 crore. Initially, the contract given to EPIL was of 27 crore for one block in ground floor. But when we made three storeyed we realised capacity will increase to 45,000. Costs escalated to Rs 57.20 crore for initial construction. Then other additions made it Rs 114 crore which I wrongly said Rs 141 crore yesterday. I can provide the break-up," he added.

Asked how Jaitley can get a clean chit, Chauhan said, "No embezzlement took place during Jaitley's tenure. You can check SFIO report. There were only procedural lapses and we have compounded (paid fine) for those lapses. There are no criminal cases during his period as president. Had there been anything SFIO would have taken action."

"Also in 2012, the government was different and enquiry completed during the tenure of the previous government and all the irregularities were taken care of. So Mr Jaitley was not in power at that time," said Chauhan.