CBI recovers key CWG contract file

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), probing alleged irregularities in the hiring of Swiss firm Event Knowledge Services (EKS) as the 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG)'s technical consultant, has recovered the contract's original tender document.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), probing alleged irregularities in the hiring of Swiss firm Event Knowledge Services (EKS) as the 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG)'s technical consultant, has recovered the contract's original tender document.

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The document is expected to help the agency establish the alleged role of Organising Committee (OC) chairman Suresh Kalmadi and its secretary general Lalit Bhanot.

The original document, comprising several files, was missing for over three months, since the agency began its probe.

"The EKS contract, worth Rs29 crore, was awarded by the OC's executive board at a time when its former chairman Suresh Kalmadi had headed it and Lalit Bhanot was its secretary general. We suspect the contract was concluded in violation of norms and by showing undue favours to the firm," a CBI source told HT.

According to the agency source, the CBI is also looking into allegations that the firm was favoured because a former CW Federation official had allegedly "owned stake in EKS."

When contacted by HT over the allegation, an aide of Kalmadi said, "Mr. Suresh Kalmadi was the chairman of the OC's executive board when the contract to EKS was awarded to it but it was first approved by finance committee comprising government officials. Even the executive board that awarded it had government officials as members then." Bhanot, when contacted, however, refused to comment.

The CBI collected the tender document on Thursday from the OC, which in turn recovered it from one of its former top official, associated with the Project Management Unit. The contract was "returned" by the official on January 31.

The official returned the file after the OC's CEO threatned to report him to the police.