Special CBI judge Talwant Singh on Friday ordered framing of charges against sacked Commonwealth Games (CWG ) Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi and 10 others for offences of forgery, cheating and conspiracy in a Games-related graft case.
The judge passed the order on framing of charges against Kalmadi, former OC Secretary-General Lalit Bhanot and nine others for illegally awarding a contract to a Swiss firm, Swiss Timing Omega, which had caused a huge loss of over `90 crore to the public exchequer.
The judge said “prima facie” charges of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and for offences under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act are made out against eight accused persons and three companies. “Put up for formally framing of charges on January 10 at 10.30 am,” the judge stated.
The CBI had chargesheeted the accused for “illegally” awarding a contract to install timing, scoring and results
(TSR) system for the 2010 CWG to Swiss Timing Omega at an inflated rate of `141 crore causing a loss of over `90 crore to the public exchequer.
Apart from Kalmadi and Bhanot, the other accused in the case are former OC Director-General V K Verma, Director-General (Procurement) Surjit Lal, Joint Director-General (Sports) A S V Prasad and Treasurer M Jayachandran.
Promoters of construction companies -- P D Arya and A K Madan of Faridabad-based Gem International and A K Reddy of Hyderabad-based AKR Constructions Ltd are also accused in the case.
Swiss Timing Omega is also the 11th accused in the case. However, no representative of the firm has made any appearance in the court despite proper service of summons. Therefore, “its trial is separated”.
In addition to cheating and conspiracy, the accused will also be charged with the offences of forgery under the Indian Penal Code and criminal misconduct by public servants under the Prevention of Corruption Act.