Refuting the allegations of the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA), former Ombudsman-cum-ethics officer of the association V. Ramkumar on Friday informed the High Court that the association had given exaggerated figures about the expenditure incurred by him during his tenure to prejudice the mind of the court.
In an additional affidavit, he said that as on October 9, 2019, the total expenditure, including salary and office expenses, incurred by the Ombudsman’s office came to only ₹1.33 crore. It was unfair on the part of the association to allege that the expenses of the Ombudsman’s office were high after having agreed and approved the yearly budgets for defraying the salary and other expenses.
The KCA's statement that the office-bearers had requested him to reduce the expenses by cutting down on the number of unnecessary staff was an utter falsehood. At no point of time, he was approached with such a request, he said.
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Mr. Kumar termed as false and misleading the statement that the disposal rate of cases was low during his tenure. In fact, the low disposal rate was attributable to the KCA as its counsel was invariably not ready for final hearing in many cases.