Darbari out of CWG court

With the Union Sports Ministry mounting pressure on the 2010 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (OC), the latter has finally passed an order terminating the service of joint director general TS Darbari, for his alleged involvement in financial irregularities committed during the Queen's Baton Relay (QBR) launch programme in London in October 2009.

With the Union Sports Ministry mounting pressure on the 2010 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (OC), the latter has finally passed an order terminating the service of joint director general TS Darbari, for his alleged involvement in financial irregularities committed during the Queen's Baton Relay (QBR) launch programme in London in October 2009.

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On August 5, the OC, based on the recommendations of its three-member probe panel, suspended two joint director general level officials — T.S. Darbari and M. Jayachandran.

The OC's decision to suspend Darbari had outraged the Sport Ministry. The Ministry had shot a letter to the OC asking it to terminate Darbari's service. It felt that suspending an official who is under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate would set a bad example.

OC officials said Darbari's termination order came on August 6.

"Darbari was on contract. We found that under the contract there was no clause to suspend him, but there was a provision to terminate his contract," said an OC official.

The OC's three-member probe team which submitted its report on August 5 had revealed that Darbari and Sanjay Mahindroo, another deputy director general level official, who quit OC some months back, knew of the London firm AM Van and Cars Hire Limited — which has been in the midst of controversy — much before QBR. The report mentions how Darbari and Mahindroo knew about AM Car and Vans way back in August 2009 — two months before the October QBR. In OC's defence, Kalmadi had said the company was recommended to OC by the Indian High Commission.