The trial in a CWG related graft scam, in which Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi and nine others are facing prosecution, will be conducted on a day-to-day basis, a special court has said.
This follows the Supreme Court direction to complete cases involving lawmakers within a year.
The court said the ongoing trial in the case, in which the accused had been charge sheeted for “illegally” awarding a contract to install ‘Timing, Scoring and Results’ (TSR) system for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, causing a loss of over Rs. 90 crore to the exchequer, will go on a daily basis as Mr. Kalmadi is a sitting MP.
Special CBI judge Madhu Jain referred to the apex court’s March 10 judgement in which it had set a time frame of one year for lower courts to complete the trial in criminal cases involving sitting MPs and MLAs. The apex court had also directed that all such proceedings must be conducted on a day-to-day basis.
“In view of judgement of the Supreme Court on March 10, 2014, the case shall now be taken up on a day-to-day basis as Suresh Kalmadi, accused number one, is a sitting MP of the Lok Sabha,” the special CBI judge said.
The court is presently recording the statements of CBI witnesses in the case. The trial in the case had commenced in February last year.
The court had earlier put Mr. Kalmadi and nine others on trial in the case and had invoked charges of criminal conspiracy, forgery, cheating and other offences against them that entail the maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
The court had framed charges against Mr. Kalmadi, who was sacked as CWG Organising Committee (OC) chairman, and other accused, including OC secretary general Lalit Bhanot, for offences punishable under the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly causing a loss of over Rs. 90 crore to the state exchequer.
All the accused have been charged under various sections of the IPC, including section 467 (forgery of a valuable security), which entails life term as maximum punishment.
The CBI had charge sheeted all the accused for “illegally” awarding a contract to install TSR system to Swiss Timing at inflated rates.
Besides Mr. Kalmadi and Mr. Bhanot, the other accused in the case are OC’s former Director General V.K. Verma, former Director General (Procurement) Surjit Lal, former Joint Director General (Sports) A.S.V. Prasad and former Treasurer M. Jayachandran. They are no more associated with the sports body.
Apart from the six, promoters of two construction firms — P.D. Arya and A.K. Madan of Faridabad-based Gem International and A.K. Reddy of Hyderabad-based have also been accused in the case. AKR Constructions is also an accused in the case.
