Sacked Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi, arrested for his alleged role in awarding a Games contract to a Swiss firm at an exorbitant rate, was on Monday denied bail by a Delhi court.
Special CBI Judge Talwant Singh dismissed Mr. Kalmadi’s bail plea along with that of Games organising panel’s Joint Director-General (Sports) A.S.V. Prasad, saying that “the offences are of serious nature.”
The court also felt that they might try to influence witnesses, if enlarged on bail at this juncture.
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Mr. Kalmadi was arrested along with OC Joint Director General (Sport) A.S.V. Prasad and three others on April 25 for awarding the contract for installing the Time-Scoring-Result (TSR) system to a Swiss firm, Swiss Times Omega, at an exorbitant cost of Rs 141 crore, causing a loss of over Rs 95 crore to the public exchequer.
The court had earlier reserved its order on bail pleas of Kalmadi and Prasad on May 16.
The CBI prosecutor had opposed Mr. Kalmadi’s bail plea, saying his “conduct (in resorting to corruption in holding the 2010 mega sporting event) has tarnished the image of the country.”
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The agency had argued that Mr. Kalmadi, as the head of the OC, had “supreme and overriding powers” and “any official of OC, who dared to protest against the illegal activities of Kalmadi and his associates, was threatened, harassed and removed from their position or were forced to leave.”
Pressing for Mr. Kalmadi’s bail, senior advocate U.U. Lalit had said his client had extended his support at all stages of investigation to CBI.
“From lodging of the FIR till my arrest, at every level, I (Kalmadi) have extended my support. I even went to the extent that I did not file an anticipatory bail,” he had pleaded.