Published: Dec 03, 2016, 09:26 PM (IST)
Edited: Dec 03, 2016, 09:26 PM (IST)
New Delhi: Former cricketers and DDCA members Kirti Azad, Bishan Singh Bedi and Surinder Khanna made their statements on Saturday before the Special Inquiry Committee (SIC) probing alleged irregularities in cricket and hockey governing bodies. Deposing before the committee, whose proceedings were opened for media for the first time, suspended BJP leader Azad said that he wrote to Delhi Police, the Central Bureau of Investigation, Ministry of Urban Development and Ministry of Corporate Affairs about irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA). “One can say that we ran from pillar to post but achieved nothing,” he said. He alleged that even if one takes a liberal estimate, there were irregularities amounting to at least Rs 300 crore.
“I wrote over 200 letters to [Finance Minister] Arun Jaitley who headed the body at that time but never got a response,” he said. The nine-member inquiry committee headed by Aam Aadmi Party legislator Sourabh Bhardwaj was set up in June following a resolution passed by the Delhi assembly.
The DDCA was wrapped by the Delhi High Court after they decided to sack three selectors. Delhi High Court on Monday rapped DDCA on its decision to remove three selectors from their respective panels, who were chosen at the instructions of court-appointed observer Justice Mukul Mudgal, saying it amounted to contempt and the cricket body had again “crossed its limit”. A bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Deepa Sharma said the DDCA has again “crossed its limit” when the high court was already seized of the matter and has reserved its order on it.
“We think you [DDCA] are testing everyone’s patience here. This is contempt of court. Evidently, somebody is over- reaching,” the bench said, asking DDCA whether it had informed of the decision to Justice Mudgal, who was appointed last year to oversee its affairs due to various contentious issues in the cricket body.
