Under the scanner, as per the six detailed reports submitted by the Shunglu panel, are Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) Tejinder Khanna, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, the then sports minister M. S. Gill and the then urban development minister Jaipal Reddy. Sources in the CBI disclosed that while Kalmadi remained the focus for the time being, their officials had started sweeping for evidence against the others too. "There are certain clear cases of irregularities pointed out by the Shunglu committee and we have directions from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to look into them," said a senior CBI official.
The committee had submitted five reports-on host broadcasting, Games Village, city infrastructure, Games venues, Organising Committee (OC)-and one main report on Organisation and Conduct of the Games. The report on city infrastructure is the one which implicated the Delhi Government. The pmo forwarded this report to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to seek a reply from Delhi Government. The MHA has given a month's time to Delhi Government to respond to the allegations. Dismissing these allegations, Dikshit said, "We are preparing a final report in response to the Shunglu Committee findings. It will be a paragraph-wise reply to every allegation. Our report is almost ready."
Even though the CBI has officially not been asked to start investigations against the Delhi LG and the chief minister, the agency has started its preliminary probe. "At a certain level, the investigations against all those named by the Shunglu panel converge and overlap. They were all a part of the Group of Ministers (GoM) which cleared all projects," said the CBI official.
Kalmadi wasted no time as he blamed Gill during his bail application hearing in the court. Gill, as sports minister, was in charge of building nine of the 17 stadia, and responsible for ensuring that the Games were fully funded. Despite several attempts made by india today, Gill was not available for a comment. The Shunglu panel dealt with it in its fourth report on venues, and noted wasteful expenditure and delays in execution of works. Reddy is under the scanner for the Games Village, where dda bailed out its PPP partner, Emaar MGF with a package of Rs 766 crore.
In its third report on projects to upgrade city infrastructure, the panel pointed out that there was no special preparation by the city Government and blamed the chief minister for her decisions that led to cost escalation in CWG-related projects. "All projects require a host of preparatory actions before the start of the project on ground. These actions have to be initiated well in advance as they take a considerably long time. The work should have started during the year 2005-06," the report observed.
It added that unfair cost advantage was given to contractors due to compressed time frame and noted indication of "collusive bidding" in tenders floated by PWD. According to a conservative estimate by the panel, the Delhi government had carried out works worth over Rs 5,500 crore with the PWD executing a majority of the works. The major projects handled by the department included Barapullah elevated corridor (Rs 52 crore), Ring Road Bypass (Rs 47 crore), Uttar Pradesh Link Road (Rs 43 crore), streetscaping (Rs 16 crore), street lighting (Rs 63 crore), signage (Rs 46 crore) and 21 flyovers, in addition to the three Games and training venues (Thyagaraj, Chhatrasal and Ludlow Castle).
The report also questioned as to why the expenditure finance committee was centralised under the chief minister and on what basis it give clearance to all types of projects. The panel also faulted Kalmadi and his aides over award of contracts, saying there was "extreme concentration of power at the top and conflict of interest among OC officials".
Sources say that now with Kalmadi safely tucked away, more people will come forward with evidence. "So far nailing Kalmadi was the difficult bit. He had hardly signed any document personally. His style was to browbeat the others under him into doing the dirty work. Not that the others did not benefit from it," revealed an official involved in the investigations.
In addition to the irregularities in contracting Event Knowledge Service (EKS), a Swiss company to advise on event planning and workforce support, there were other clear cases of forgery, falsification, record creation, delays and financial bungling against Kalmadi. Other contracts for which Kalmadi is under the scanner are on appointment of Australian firm Sports Marketing and Management (SMAM) for arranging sponsorships and the one for catering. According to the highly dubious agreement between SMAM and the oc, the former was the "sole and exclusive negotiator and procurer of sponsorship for licensing contracts," and it stood to gain a commission of 15 to 20 per cent on each sponsorship that came for the Games, even if it was not arranged by SMAM.
The CBI is also probing the catering contract which was first awarded, then inexplicably cancelled, re-tendered and awarded to the same company, which had hiked the cost three times, causing a loss of over Rs 100 crore to the OC. With all the various players in the CWG mess, the CBI is hoping that it will gain from one singing against the other.
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