Suresh Kalmadi arrested in corruption case and will spend this Diwali behind bars
Suresh Kalmadi has been arrested in connection with the Commonwealth Games scam.The Games were held in India in September last year, and various close aides of Mr Kalmadi have already been arrested. Team Kalmadi was allegedly in the habit of handing out contracts to firms that provided equipment or services at exorbitant rates; reasonable bids from other firms were allegedly ignored.
While Mr Kalmadi's own role has long been suspect, the CBI believes it finally has enough evidence to prove his corruption.A London-based firm named AM Films was hired by Mr Kalmadi to provide taxis, portable toilets and massive public TV screens for the ceremony. Mr Kalmadi sanctioned transfers of huge amounts of cash to AM Film and its owner, Ashish Patel, even though there was no signed contract. Mr Kalmadi later told NDTV that because London officials had requested equipment at the last minute, he did not have the time to process a contract. AM Films charged phenomenal amounts for its services. The financial track record of Mr Patel proved to be dubious.
After several rounds of quizzing over the past few months, the Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday arrested the then Chairman of the Organising Committee (OC) of the Commonwealth Games 2010, Suresh Kalmadi, for alleged conspiracy in awarding a contract for the Games to a Swiss company at an inflated cost of Rs. 141 crore.
