Cases against Kanimozhi, Kalmadi in 2G, CWG scams

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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.

Kalmadi and Kanimozhi have been charged for cheating India of millions 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.

Kalmadi's arrest puts under renewed scrutiny, the $6 billion sporting event last October which became embroiled in rows over leaking stadiums, filthy athletes' accommodation and inflated tenders for equipment including treadmills and toilet paper.

He was arrested 'for conspiracy to show favour to a private firm based in Switzerland in awarding the contract for timing, scoring and results systems at inflated prices of 1.41 billion rupees ($31 million)', said a spokesperson for the CBI, Dharini Mishra.

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.

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, an 'unhappy' DMK convened a high-level meeting on the issue. Both the DMK chief and his daughter have refused to comment on the chargesheet.

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.