New Delhi: An Indian fast-track court has charged the chief of Delhi’s 2010 Commonwealth Games, Suresh Kalmadi and nine other, with corruption, cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy. Mr. Kalmadi and other accused have pleaded not guilty. Dispatch News Desk (DND) reported on Tuesday.
Estimated US $16.5m were lost to the exchequer, the case is one of several corruption scandals which have rocked India. The Games’ secretary general Lalit Bhanot, director general VK Verma and seven others were among those charged for illegally awarding the contract to the company in Switzerland. Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), arrested Mr Kalmadi in April 2011 “for conspiracy to cause favour to a company in Switzerland while procuring timers and scoring equipment for the Games”. He was sacked as chairman of the Commonwealth Games Committee in January 2011.
Mr Kalmadi is a member of parliament from the ruling Congress party. He has also been charged with corruption in a case related to contracts at a 2009 event in London.
