Cases against Kanimozhi, Kalmadi in 2G, CWG scams repectively

It was a day of action for the Central Bureau of Investigation with Suresh Kalmadi and Kanimozhi landing in the agency's ant-graft net.

The two have been charged for cheating India of crores in the Commonwealth Games scandal and the 2G spectrum case.

Kalmadi was sacked in November after Commonwealth Games organisers were accused of manipulating contracts and inflating bills in an event which was meant to showcase India's rise as a global power but was instead beset by problems.

In the spectrum case, Kanimozhi, daughter of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party's head Karunanidhi, was among those charged with taking bribes in the multi-billion dollar telecoms licensing scandal, which may strain the Cong-DMK coalition and weaken the regional party's chances at the ballot box.

Congress throws Kalmadi out

Kalmadi, 66, the CWG's public face, was charged for allegedly awarding illegal contracts to a Swiss firm for Timing-Scoring-Result (TSR) system for the Games causing a loss of Rs 95 crore to the exchequer. The arrest orders came after four hours of questioning by the CBI.

The agency registered a case under section 120B (conspiracy) read with Section 420 (cheating) IPC and other relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption Act.

"The CBI has today arrested the then Chairman of OC of Commonwealth Games-2010 for conspiracy to cause favour to a private firm based in Switzerland in awarding the contract for Timing, Scoring and Result system at an inflated cost of Rs 141 crore," CBI spokesperson Dharni Mishra told reporters.

Also, the ruling Congress wasted no time in suspending the Lok Sabha MP. "The Disciplinary Committee(of the Congress has suspended Suresh kalmadi from the membership of the party," AICC general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi said.

Problems also mounted for Kalmadi in the sphere of sports administration after his arrest with the Union Sports ministry writing a letter to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) asking it to consider appointing a new president to replace him.

The shamed sports boss will be produced before the special CBI court on Tuesday and till then, would stay on the third floor of the newly-constructed CBI Headquarters at the CGO complex in Lodhi road in central Delhi, CBI officials said.

Also arrested were two more officials of the Games panel, Sujit Lal and A.S.V. Prasad. Lal was deputy director general (procurement) and Prasad was joint direct general (sports) in the committee.

This brings to 13 the number of past and present organising committee officials who have been arrested so far in the Commonwealth Games probe. Among them are Lalit Bhanot, a former secretary general of the organising committee, and V.K. Verma, who was its director general. The other officials are T.S. Darbari, Sanjay Mohindroo, M Jayachandran, Shekhar Deorukhkar, K. Udai Kumar Reddy, Binu Nanu, Sandeep Wadhwa and Praveen Bakshi.

2G: Kanimozhi gets a call

Kanimozhi, meanwhile, is now the cause of major embarrassment for father Karunanidhi.

The chargesheet on the 2G case, filed by the premier probe agency in a special court here on Monday also names as co-accused Sharad Kumar of Kalaignar TV, Karim Morani of Cineyug Films, and Asif Balwa and Rajiv B. Agarwal of Kusegaon Realty.

"On the basis of material on record, I am satisfied that there is enough incriminating material on record to proceed against the accused persons," said Judge O.P. Saini, who is presiding over the special court of the investigative agency.

He asked Balwa and Agarwal, who are already in judicial custody, to be produced before the court on Tuesday, while all the other co-accused are to be present on May 6.

DMK in shock

The probe agency claims it has unearthed an illegal money trail that moved from Dynamix to Kusegaon and then on to Cineyug, all part of the DB Group that promoted Swan Telecom, ending with Kalaignar TV that gets its name from how Karunanidhi is popularly addressed - scholar.

Later in the day, a 'shocked' DMK called for a high-level meeting on the issue. Both the DMK chief and his daughter have refused to comment on the chargesheet.

Karunanidhi's wife is spared by CBI

In an interesting angle to the 2G case, the CBI has admitted to sparing Karunanidhi's wife, Dayaluammal.

The agency maintained that due to her advanced age and 'non-understanding' of any language other than Tamil, she was only fulfilling the legal requirments of the company - Kalaignar TV Pvt Ltd - in which she is one of the Directors and where the money connected with the scam has travelled.

Dayaluammal had delegated her power to Kalaignar TV Director Sharad Kumar to run the affairs of the company, CBI has revealed.

"She categorically informed that in view of her old age and deteiorating health she cannot be expected to give any attention to the company's affairs and requested Sharad Kumar to exercise degree of skill which may reasonably be expected of a person of his age, knowledge, experience, calibre and status," the chargesheet said.

Others, however, may not be so lucky.