Commonwealth Games scam: Enforcement directorate to register case

The enforcement directorate (ED) is likely to register a case of money laundering in the Commonwealth Games (CWG) scandal, as the agency has identified crucial missing links in the money trail outside the country.

The probe agency has enough evidence to register a case under the stringent provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), senior ED officials said. “The monetary trail has been more or less convincingly established. We could be soon registering a case under PMLA,” the official said.

The ED action comes a week after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) made its intentions clear and booked cases against Games organising committee (OC) officials. Three former OC officials — joint director general, TS Darbari, deputy director general, Sanjay Mohindroo, and treasurer M Jayachandran.

The ED is also likely to seek the custody of the trio for questioning them in the Queens Baton Relay case and to corroborate available evidence on how and who authorised the fund transfers.

CBI has already established that OC officials along with London-based Ashish Patel, owner of AM Car and AM Films, awarded work to firms at exorbitant rates without following the standard tendering process and on the basis of fake quotations.