Probe ordered against scam in Sabarmati Marathon 2010

A local magisterial court has asked Karanj police to conduct an enquiry against a former municipal commissioner of the city, along with a few others in a case related to an alleged scam during the Sabarmati Marathon held in 2010. It has asked cops to submit its report on September 18.

The court was acting on a complaint filed by an RTI activist, Vinod Pandya alleging officials of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and some others of defrauding citizens while organizing the marathon.

Pandya alleged that officials and organizers of the marathon had collected fees amounting to Rs18 lakh from 18,000 participants, but did not maintain any accounts for the same.

The civic body had incurred expenses of Rs1.10 crore, but bills exceeding Rs20,000 were not paid by cheque and that contracts were given to favour certain people. The officials did not float tenders to conduct work related to the marathon and thus committed monetary irregularities.

Pandya has stated in the complaint that an application raising the issue of the scam has been handed to the Satellite police station but they took no action against the accused. They instead forwarded the application to Karanj police station on the grounds of jurisdiction in April this year. “We communicated the matter to the deputy commissioner of police also, but he too did nothing to lodge an FIR,” Pandya said.