Dalmiya spared from court appearance

A magistrate’s court on Monday exempted former BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya — co-accused in a fund misappropriation case in Mumbai -— from appearing in court after the cricket administrator gave a plea that he had to contest the forthcoming Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) presidential elections.

Dalmiya had been appearing in court in a case of cheating registered against him by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police. The magistrate adjourned the hearing in the case till December 19.

The EOW had recently charge-sheeted Dalmiya and also arrested him in March, for alleged misappropriation of funds during the 1996 World Cup. It has been alleged that Dalmiya misappropriated funds to the tune of Rs 2.96 crore.

The police charged Dalmiya and two others— his secretary KM Chaudhaury and one Gautam Dutta — with embezzlement of funds between 1997 and 2006. The police in the charge-sheet stated that Dalmiya, Choudhary and Dutta diverted funds meant for fighting 64 cases slapped by the Income Tax authorities on PILCOM (the organising committee for the 1996 World Cup) towards other expenses.

Soon after getting the reprieve, Dalmiya said there were no legal hurdles for him now. “That was a regular course of hearing. The hurdle was never there. If you have any information that the court ruling was any roadblock (in contesting CAB polls) it’s false and fictitious,” he said.