Kalmadi sent to 8-day CBI remand

Former Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi was on Tuesday remanded to eight days in custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation by a special court in Delhi.

The CBI had earlier sought a 14-day custody of Kalmadi, who was arrested by the anti-corruption branch the investigating agency, to question him about several major aspects of CWG scam.

He has been charged with cheating, conspiracy and corruption in connection with awarding some Games contracts.

The Congress MP has been accused of awarding illegal contracts to a Swiss firm for Timing-Scoring-Result (TSR) system for the Games causing a loss of Rs 95

crore to the exchequer.

"It was Kalmadi's role in his then official capacity as chief of the OC's executive board that led to his arrest," CBI spokesperson Dharini Mishra said on Monday.

"The price paid to the Swiss firm was more than thrice the amount of Rs 46 crore sought by the only other bidder, MSL of Spain."

"Investigation has revealed that the OC committee for short-listing prospective bidders for TSR was constituted by selecting handpicked officials who favoured the Swiss company while members of the tenders-evaluation committee were coerced and threatened to disqualify other bidders," she said.