Kalmadi may be questioned by CBI tomorrow: reports

Sacked chairman of Commonwealth Games Organising Committee Suresh Kalmadi may be questioned by CBI in connection with the Queen's Baton Relay (QBR) scam following the receipt of fresh papers from the UK.

The agency has called Kalmadi to clarify certain issues that have come up during the visit of a two-member team of the agency to London in connection with the alleged irregularities in hiring AM Films and AM Car and Van Hire Limited during QBR held in 2009, according to highly placed sources.

A two-member team of the agency comprising additional director V K Gupta and DIG S K Palsania has been able to speak to the London-based owner of both the companies. The owner Ashish Patel has given a lot of information along with documents pertaining to the allegedly overvalued deal according to sources.
 
The documents and other material shared by Patel would be provided to the CBI officially in response to their Letter Rogatory issued to British Authorities, sources said.

According to CBI sources, the team would now require Kalmadi to reply to the new piece of information on the monetary transactions with the two companies. Kalmadi who was out of the country had told the agency he could only answer the queries after 19 April following his return.

"It is alleged that in relation to the QBR held on 29 October 2009 the OC awarded the work of transportation to the company namely AM Car and Van Hire Ltd, owned by Ashish Patel, at exorbitantly high rates...the work was awarded to AM Car and Van Hire Ltd without following the standard tender process," the FIR registered by CBI said.

The firm was able to get the work on a false claim of being listed on the panel of Indian High Commission, London, it said.

The investigating agency has registered a total of nine FIRs in various cases related to alleged corruption in the run up to the mega sporting extravaganza held in New Delhi between 3-14 October last year.