CWG scam: CBI searches frozen lockers of Kalmadi, others

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday searched Suresh Kalmadi's locker at the Parliament Street branch of UCO Bank in New Delhi, in connection with alleged irregularities in the conduct of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi last October.

The locker of former games organising committee (OC) chairman was sealed in December last year. The search was carried out by a five-member CBI team in presence of Kalmadi's wife and daughter.

The CBI teams also opened the lockers of New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and Central Public Works Department (CPWD) officials, which were also frozen earlier.
Kalmadi is likely to appear before the CBI for further questioning next week. He has been questioned once already.

Several of Kalmadi's top aides, including Lalit Bhanot, former secretary general of the OC, and V K Verma, former director general of the OC, have been arrested in the last few months for alleged financial irregularities in various cases pertaining to the sporting event.

Shekhar Deorukhkar, personal assistant of the Congress MP, was also arrested by the CBI in February in connection with the overlays scam.

The CBI had carried out searches in December last at the residential premises of Kalmadi in the national capital and in Pune in connection with its probe into alleged irregularities in the conduct of the games and frozen several lockers in two cities.

Besides Kalmadi, the premises of his personal secretary Manoj Bhure in Pune were also searched by the CBI. Kalmadi's farm house at Khadakwasla near Pune and the `Sai Service' petrol station owned by him in Pune were among his properties searched in December.

In November 2010, the Congress axed Suresh Kalmadi as secretary of its Parliamentary party; and in January this year, he was fired as the OC chairman.

Kalmadi, a seasoned politician known for his swagger and considerable clout in Pune, has so far remained defiant and still insists there is no reason for him to resign as the head of the Indian Olympic Association, which he has led from disaster to disaster.