CWG scam: Kalmadi, aide Prasad denied bail

"The gravity of offence being of very serious nature for causing loss to Government of India and unlawful gain to a private vendor to the tune of more than Rs 95 crores, I am of the view that accused is not entitled for bail at this stage," said Special Judge Talwant Singh while dismissing the bail pleas of Kalmadi and former CWG OC official A S V Prasad.

The court also agreed with the apprehensions of CBI that if enlarged on bail at this juncture, they might try to influence witnesses.

"Kalmadi is an influential person who was exercising full control over the OC as its chairman and most of the witnesses are his appointees or the employees of the CWG organising committee," the court said.

The court, meanwhile, remanded CWG organising panel's former Treasurer M Jayachandran in CBI custody for three days for his interrogation over his role in award of the contract for installing the Timing-Scoring-Result (TSR) system to a Swiss firm, Swiss Times Omega, at an exorbitant cost of Rs 141 crore, allegedly causing a loss of over Rs 95 crore to the public exchequer.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 each on two promoters of Faridabad-based Gem International, P D Arya and Anil Madan in connection with the case.

While dismissing the former OC Joint Director-General (Sports) Prasad's bail plea, the court added there exists the possibility of his influencing the witnesses if enlarged on bail at this stage as he was "exercising considerable clout in the OC and he was very close to its Chairman Kalmadi."

The judge added most of the witnesses are employees of OC, or the vendors or their employees who got contracts for various works by persons close to him and they are very well known to him, and accordingly, "it is not a fit case for grant of bail" to Prasad.

While pronouncing the order, the court also mentioned that bail applications of two other co-accused V K Verma and Lalit Bhanot have already been rejected earlier.
Kalmadi was arrested along with Prasad and three others on April 26 for their roles in awarding the contract to the Swiss firm.

The court rejected Prasad's plea for bail on ground of his ill health saying that nothing has been brought on record to show his medical condition has been aggravated after he was remanded to judicial custody.

Jayachandran was remanded to the CBI custody today on the plea that he had to be interrogated in custody to unearth the money trail in the scam as besides being the treasurer of the Organising Committee, he was also the secretary of its sub-panel on finance that dealt with the money transactions.

He had surrendered before the CBI court on May 3 and was sent to Tihar jail under judicial custody.

While imposing a fine of Rs 25,000 each on the two promoters of Faridabad-based Gem International - P D Arya and Anil Madan, the court asked the former to deposit the money by June 9 to Delhi High Court Bar Association.

The court asked Madan to deposit his part of the fine to the New Delhi Bar Association of the Patiala House court premises, stipulating that it will be utilised for further legal education of the lower court's advocates.

Earlier, the CBI had opposed Kalmadi's bail plea, saying his "conduct (in resorting to corruption in holding the 2010 mega sporting event) has tarnished the country's image."
The agency had argued that Kalmadi, as the head of the OC, had "supreme and overriding powers" and "any official of OC, who dared to protest against his illegal activities, was threatened, harassed and removed from their position or were forced to leave."
Pressing for Kalmadi's bail, senior advocate U U Lalit had said his client had extended his support at all stages of investigation to CBI.

Meanwhile, the court deferred arguments on bail plea of OC former Deputy Director General Surjit Lal and the director of a private firm AKR Constructions, AK Reddy, for June 9. The court also directed that all the accused, lodged in the jail, would be produced before it on July 14.

CBI had filed its first chargesheet against Kalmadi and ten others on May 20, describing him as main accused in the corruption case, involving the award of the TSR contract to the Swiss firm.