 "DDCA row: Allegations, rebuttals raised by Kejriwal, Jaitley and the cricketing body")
The slugfest between Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Finance Minister Aurn Jaitley over the alleged corruption at the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) when Jaitley was chairman doesn’t look like it’s going to go easily into the night.
Over the past two days, allegations and counter-allegations have flown thick and fast, with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) accusing Jaitley of nurturing corruption at the DDCA during his tenure. Jaitley, for his part, has claimed innocence and has even filed a civil defamation suit against the Delhi CM for his charges.
Here are the top 10 developments in the DDCA row:
1) Jaitley said on December 20 that he would file civil and criminal defamation cases against the Delhi chief minister and some other AAP leaders.
On allegations regarding irregularities in the cost incurred during renovation of the Ferozeshah Kotla stadium, Jaitley said in a Facebook post that the allegations were false and that when work expands, cost escalations are integral.
“A brand new 42,000-capacity world-class stadium was constructed by the EPIL (Engineering Projects India Limited), a public sector body, at a total cost of around Rs 114 crore. At the same time, the UPA government renovated two stadiums. The Jawahar Lal Nehru stadium was renovated at over Rs 900 crore and the Dhyan Chand stadium was renovated at over Rs 600 crore.”
2) On the matters raised by AAP regarding the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) report, Jailtey said that the SFIO had been entrusted with the investigation by the previous government and had found that “no fraud (was) noticed as alleged”.
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3) Earlier, in a press conference on December 17, leaders from Kejriwal’s AAP, while quoting from reports of SFIO, DDCA's internal probe committee and a Delhi Government-appointed inquiry panel, had accused Jaitley of giving "direct and indirect" consent to "massive corruption" in the cricket body. AAP leaders alleged that the bunglings had happened during Jaitley's tenure as DDCA chief.
4) BJP MP Kirti Azad, who has been campaigning against alleged corruption in Delhi's cricket body, addressed a press conference on December 20 and demanded an ED and DRI probe into the affairs of DDCA. However, he stopped short of naming Jaitley in the matter.
5) According to AAP, an additional expenditure of Rs 90 crore was incurred in renovation of the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium against sanctioned budget of Rs 24 crore and that fake companies were set up by DDCA office bearers to siphon off money through round-tripping. AAP also alleged that payments were made to five companies whose registered addresses were same and were headed by the same director. There was duplication of funds and fictitious companies were paid for work they never did.
6) AAP leader Ashutosh has claimed that IAS officer Chetan Sanghi, who headed a three-member committee for the purpose of probing into irregularities in DDCA, was threatened of dire consequences by a joint secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs. AAP also alleged that 22 days after Sanghi filed the report, on December 9, the Anti-Corruption Bureau registered a case of corruption against him.
They alleged that 10 newly constructed corporate boxes at Feroz Shah Kotla were given out on lease to companies without following laid down rules during Jaitley's tenure. There also allegations of proxy litigation to mint money. Lawyers who used to appear against DDCA were paid by the cricket body itself.
7) AAP alleged forged age certificates were used to let certain players get selected despite exceeding age limit and quoted FIRs into large number of such cases which the Delhi Police did not pursue.
8) However, on December 17, DDCA's working president Chetan Chauhan said that no embezzlement took place during Jaitley's tenure and that there were only procedural lapses according to the SFIO report. He stated that they have paid fine for those lapses.
9) Jaitley, Chauhan said had in fact worked for the betterment of cricket in general and had made the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium into a world class facility and it was uncalled for to drag him into this controversy. “Yesterday I said the cost of building stadium is Rs 114 crore. Initially, the contract given to EPIL was of 27 crore for one block in ground floor. But when we made three storeyed we realised capacity will increase to 45,000. Costs escalated to Rs 57.20 crore for initial construction. Then other additions made it Rs 114 crore which I wrongly said Rs 141 crore yesterday. I can provide the break-up.”
10) Chauhan also said that the enquiry into the matter was completed during the tenure of the previous government and all the irregularities were taken care of.