JOIN USPatel rebuts complaints on conflict of interest
Terming the conflict of interest allegations against him as a mere slander, Karnataka State Cricket Association Secretary Brijesh Patel said the issue of his involvement in these cases had been settled in his favour by an enquiry conducted by the office of Registrar of Societies in his favour.
He was reacting to a report published in these columns on Thursday that dealt with former Karnataka cricketer CR Lakshminarayan’s pension being withheld by the KSCA as he had complained against Brijesh to BCCI, alleging conflict claims.
“The pension of Sri C R Lakshminarayan, Life Member of the KSCA, has been withheld till such a time he substantiates his allegations with original documentary evidence. The Committee would examine the same whenever the same is submitted,” said Brijesh in a rejoinder.
Brijesh also clarified that he couldn’t give any reaction to Deccan Herald’s queries on Thursday as he was “busy at the Invest Karnataka meet with the Chief Minister with regards to land for the National Cricket Academy (NCA).”
Terming the issue an internal matter of the KSCA, he insisted that normally “he would refrain from commenting on internal matters of the KSCA to the media.”
A release from KSCA, meanwhile, added that the allegations against Brijesh were personal vengeance.
Questioning why no step was taken to address the said issue during 2010-13, when Brijesh was not in power, the association claimed: “One of the complainants Mr MR Krishna was part of the Managing Committee from 2010-2013 and he has not raised the issue or impressed upon the committee to take up the issue during his tenure. There have been various other instances of conflict of interest with regard to office bearers and committee members during the same tenure which he has not objected to.
“Even with regard to withholding of the pension, the said complainants have not raised the issue in the General Body (AGM) of the KSCA, which is the right forum. The fact that they are trying to pursue the matter through the media is proof enough that they do not have substantial documentary evidence to approach the KSCA,” it concluded.
KSCA Managing Committee member Vinay Mruthyunjaya, who in the past had questioned the enquiry report that gave a clean chit to Brijesh, said he was satisfied after reading the conclusions. “It’s a fact that some of the current managing committee members including myself, PR Ashok Anand, Ashok Raghavan, K Sriram, BK Ravi and Sanjay Desai and many others had questioned a few of the conflict of interest transactions pertaining to SK Ramadhayani and Brijesh Patel. However, after reviewing the entire enquiry report in detail it did not merit to challenge the same. Mere fact that most of us contested the last KSCA elections teaming up with Brijesh Patel was conclusive proof that we were satisfied and never intend to challenge the enquiry report.”