The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday went beyond probing only the officials of the Suresh Kalmadi-led Commonwealth Games Organising Committee to start cracking on those allegedly involved in corruption in construction and renovation of the stadiums.
Kalmadi had been saying from day one that his organising committee's budget was too small compared to huge sums spent by other agencies in refurbishing the stadia for the games while the CBI for the first time registered three cases of alleged irregularities in case of two such stadiums.
Those charged are the officials of the Central Public Works Department, New Delhi Municipal Corporation and three firms that were awarded contracts by them for the CWG-related projects.
The cases have been registered following searches conducted at 20 different premises in Delhi, Noida, Mumbai and Kolkata that led to the recovery
of several incriminating documents and assets, a CBI spokesman said.
The officials are accused of entering into a criminal conspiracy with the contractors to award them works of upgradation and renovation of the Talkatora and Shivaji stadiums in Delhi at exorbitant rates, justifying the same on the grounds of urgency to complete everything before the Games began.
One such contractor even sublet the work to another contractor in violation of terms and conditions and yet the officials showed the blind eye to the irregularity as their palms were greased, the spokesman said.
He also pointed out that a private firm was given the consultancy contract for renovation of the two stadiums despite not fulfilling the tender conditions. It was further awarded a consultancy contract of Rs 160 crores, without re-tendering, for the revised scope of work at the Shivaji Stadium.