Hours after a Delhi court framed charges against sacked Commonwealth Games (CWG) organising committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi in connection with the scam surrounding the 2010 sporting extravaganza, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday used the occasion to target Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, and maintained that big fish have been allowed to get out of the net.
BJP leader Balbir Punj said Kalmadi was one of the prime people responsible for the Commonwealth Games scandal.
"But there were two parts of this entire thing. Number one was the organistaion of the games for which Kalmadi was responsible; another was building up of massive infrastructures in Delhi at the cost of thousands of crores.
"And even though Kalmadi can be held responsible for the development of the games and the scandals connected with that, Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit and her colleagues in the government are equally responsible for the infrastructures scandal and the CAG had underlined this fact," he said.
Punj added that the Shunglu Committee, which was appointed by the prime minister, had even pointed a needle of suspicion towards Sheila Dikshit.
"But somehow the government and the CBI is absolutely silent about it. So, the big fish has been allowed to get out of the net and Suresh Kalmadi has been pinned down for this scandal," he added.
Charges have been framed against Kalmadi and nine others for allegedly cheating, conspiring and causing a loss of over Rs90 crore to the exchequer during the games.
Special CBI judge Ravinder Kaur framed charges under various provisions of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act against Kalmadi and other accused, including Commonwealth Games Organising Committee Secretary General Lalit Bhanot in connection with the case.
Besides cheating and criminal conspiracy, the accused have also been charged with offences relating to forgery and use of forged documents as genuine, criminal intimidation, destruction of evidence of the IPC and section 13(1)(d) read with section 13(2) (criminal misconduct by public servants) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
After framing of charges, the court fixed February 20 for recording of evidence. The judge said that the evidence will be recorded on a day-to-day basis barring Monday and Friday.
The accused were chargesheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for illegally awarding a contract to install Timing, Scoring and Results (TSR) system for the 2010 Commonwealth Games to Swiss Timing at inflated rates causing a loss of over Rs90 crore to the exchequer.
