Court denies bail to Kalmadi, aide

A Special CBI court dismissed a bail plea of former Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (OC) chief Suresh Kalmadi and his aide, arrested for awarding the timing, scoring and result (TSR) devices contract at overwhelming price.

A Special CBI court dismissed a bail plea of former Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (OC) chief Suresh Kalmadi and his aide, arrested for awarding the timing, scoring and result (TSR) devices contract at overwhelming price.
Observing Kalmadi’s influential character, the court noted that he was exercising full control over the OC as
its chairman and most of the witnesses were his employees. Moreover, vendors or employees of the vendors who were given contracts for various works were also close to him.

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“The gravity of offence is very serious in nature, causing loss to the government and unlawful gain to a private vendor to the tune of more than R95 crore,” said special judge Talwant Singh.

“Based on the nature and character of evidence collected by CBI, I am of the view that the accused is not entitled to bail at this stage and his bail application is dismissed,” the judge added.

The court also noted that joint director ASV Prasad, arrested along with Kalmadi, was close to him and played a key role in awarding the contract to the Swiss firm.

“The bail application of accused Prasad is hereby dismissed,” the judge said.

Earlier, the CBI had opposed Kalmadi and his associates’ bail applications stating that he was the kingpin in the TSR scam and controlled head and tail of all the issues related to it.

The agency had argued that Kalmadi, as the head of the OC, had “supreme and overriding powers” and “any OC official, who dared to protest against the illegal activities of Kalmadi and his associates, was threatened, harassed and removed from the position or was forced to leave.”