The Central Bureau of Investigation raided a dozen premises across Delhi on Thursday in connection with the alleged scam in Commonwealth Games overlays contracts. It included an office under the Union Sports Ministry, as it registered a fourth FIR naming a top Games official, V K Verma, for the second time.
The searches that began early on Thursday morning were conducted a day after the CBI questioned CWG Organising Committee(OC) chief Suresh Kalmadi for about nine hours.
Official sources said the office of the International Sports Division under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and premises of Nussli India and Comfort Net consortium and Pico Deepali were among those searched.
Pico's Indian arm -- Deepali Designs --is stated to be owned by a relative of senior BJP leader Sudhanshu Mittal.
The sources said the raids were focussed on four companies which acted as the Indian arm for an identical number of international firms. The contracts were bagged by a consortium of foreign and Indian firms.
A large number of documents, including in digital format, are believed to have been seized from various premises in Thursday's searches.
The overlays contacts are also under the scanner of the Income Tax Department and Enforcement Directorate.
The FIR making Verma, a key aide of Kalmadi and the Organising Committee(OC) Director General, an accused again in a separate case was registered on Wednesday. The total value of the overlays contracts that are under the scanner is over Rs 600 crore.
Verma's name also figured in the third FIR filed by the CBI in connection with the Rs 107 crore Swiss Time Keeping deal along with that of CWG secretary-general Lalit Bhanot.
He had earlier been questioned by the CBI in connection with irregularities in the Games' projects.
Overlays works included supply of tents, marquees, prefabricated units, portable toilets, containers, security fences, furniture, public display LED boards, floor finishes, material handling equipment, gensets, cabling, UPS, air-conditioners, lighting, civil construction, athletic exercise equipment and grandstands.
The CBI had earlier registered three FIRs for alleged corruption in projects and events in the run-up to the sporting extravaganza.
Two of these cases were in connection with alleged irregularities in the Queen's baton relay.
