INDIAN POLICE yesterday arrested the chief organiser of last October’s Commonwealth Games in New Delhi as part of a long-pending investigation into the corruption-plagued competition.
Suresh Kalmadi, a senior ruling Congress party MP, and two other officials associated with the games were taken into custody by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), accused of inflating bills and arbitrarily awarding tenders in an event billed as an economically resurgent India’s “coming out” party.
Instead, the games turned out to be a major embarrassment for the country, with scandals over leaking stadiums, filthy accommodation for athletes and highly inflated tenders for sporting equipment.
Costing India more than 700 billion rupees (€11 billion), despite an initial estimate of 18.9 billion rupees, the games unleashed months of bitter allegations and a detailed investigation of wrongdoing by the comptroller and auditor general ordered by an embarrassed prime minister, Manmohan Singh.
Australian and British companies had also accused the organising committee of delaying payments for services rendered during the games and were threatening legal action.
Officials said Mr Kalmadi had been charged with conspiracy for allegedly favouring a Swiss company in the purchase of timing and scoring equipment for sporting events.
The bureau claims the government was cheated of 1.41 billion rupees in the deal as equipment was available from another company for far less. Two of Mr Kalmadi’s close aides on the Commonwealth committee – Lalit Bhanot and VK Verma – were arrested last month in the same case.
Mr Kalmadi, who is due to appear in court today for a custody hearing, has denied any wrongdoing. He is, however, being investigated for other Commonwealth Games-related corruption scandals. His arrest was part of a crackdown in a series of corruption scandals afflicting Mr Singh’s Congress Party-led federal coalition.
In a separate case, the daughter of a key ally of Mr Singh’s government was among those charged yesterday with accepting bribes in a multibillion dollar telecom licensing scandal, which may strain the coalition.
The bureau had earlier charged three telecoms firms, a former minister, six corporate executives and several civil servants on charges of corruption and wrongdoing in the scandal, which a state auditor claims may have deprived the country of $39 billion (€27 billion) in revenue.
Over the past six months, Mr Singh’s administration has been beset by scandals and land scams, forcing it to concede to a popular citizens’ movement to draft an anti-corruption Bill pending for more than four decades.