Azad’s graft googly to Jaitley

Jaswinder Singh Baidwan

Akhran da mureed
Staff member
Much against his party’s wishes, Bharatiya Janata Party MP Kirti Azad today came out with a new video alleging corruption in the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) and said the body’s former president, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, was aware of the “irregularities”.
On an evening of fast-paced developments, as senior cricketers like Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Ishant Sharma came out in Jaitley’s support, the AAP government in Delhi ordered an inquiry into the alleged financial irregularities.
The order came minutes of the cricketer-turned-politician Azad's press conference where he alleged massive irregularities in the DDCA, including awarding of contracts to fake companies and paying them crores in cash. Jaitley headed the DDCA from 1999 to 2013.
The inquiry commission will be headed by former Solicitor General of India, Gopal Subramaniam, tweeted Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Kejriwal’s party has accused Jaitley of corruption and insisted that he resign or be removed to clear the decks for an independent investigation.
Azad’s action came a day after BJP president Amit Shah met him, probably to convince him against releasing the video.
In another development this evening, the DDCA absolved Jaitley of any corruption and said action had been taken against its former chief, Sneh Bansal, whom it accused of embezzlement.
Addressing the media here, Azad said he was not targeting any individual, and that his was simply a fight against corruption in the DDCA. He, however, fired a fresh salvo at Jaitley for alleged irregularities in the financial transactions of the cricket body and played a CD of an annual general meeting of the cricket body held in December 2012, where he clearly points out the irregularities to Jaitley, who was chairing the meeting, and seeks answers from him.
Jaitley, on the other hand, is seen retorting angrily to Azad and pointing out to the latter, “If you put criminal charges against my colleagues, it is my duty to defend them.”
Azad alleged he had written to Jaitley on innumerable occasions pointing to specific instances of corruption in the DDCA but he did not act. Incidentally, the DDCA constitution clearly says that its president is not involved in the day-to-day functioning of the body and that is handled by various secretaries who are appointed.
Azad also played another CD where he claimed that a 'Wikileaks 4 India' investigation had revealed that the DDCA awarded contracts to fake companies. The sting operation claimed that 14 companies that had got contracts from the DDCA were registered on fake addresses around Delhi.
Azad has alleged that the DDCA inflated prices of the items and services that it procured. He also alleged that the DDCA did not float tenders before awarding contracts and has demanded an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence into the irregularities.
Jaitley had earlier claimed that an MP from his party had met Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and that “they together had planned to fix him”. Without naming the Bihar MP, Jaitley said, "One MP wrote to the Congress government. He met Sonia Gandhi and they said we will fix Jaitley. So they referred the case to the Serious Frauds Investigation Office (SFIO). In 2013, the SFIO gave a report saying there were procedural irregularities in the company, but no case of fraud was made out. The whole issue ended, but it has become a political controversy now.”
Jaitley has also called the allegations a “propaganda technique” by Kejriwal.
Players back him
Virender Sehwag
Was a nightmare to speak to some others at DDCA but @arunjaitley ji was always available for players
Gautam Gambhir
Some ex-players blame @arunjaitley ji for all that's wrong in DDCA, while they enjoyed plum posts coz of him
 
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