The Delhi Cabinet on Monday approved the setting up of a one-member commission of inquiry under former Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium to probe the alleged irregularities in the capital city’s cricket body Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA).
The Cabinet also decided to call a special session of the Delhi Assembly to discuss the allegations and the last week’s CBI raid at the Delhi Secretariat. The decisions were taken at a Cabinet meeting presided by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Kejriwal tweeted:
The decision to form the commission of inquiry came amid the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) fierce attack on Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over the alleged irregularities in DDCA during his 13-year tenure as its chief. Jaitley has strongly rubbished the allegations.
“We will present a resolution in the House to approve setting up of the Commission of Inquiry,” said Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. Following a CBI raid in Delhi Secretariat in connection with charges against Kejriwal’s Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar, AAP has been claiming that the central agency carried out the searches to target the AAP chief and was looking for a file relating to alleged graft in DDCA.
Since then, the party has been demanding the resignation of Jaitley from the Union Cabinet. The decision to appoint the committee came a month after an AAP government-appointed probe committee recommended the immediate suspension of the DDCA by the BCCI for alleged irregularities including financial bungling. The Delhi Government panel had suggested that an interim committee of professional cricketers should manage the affairs of the game in the capital.
The committee had also recommended to the government to appoint a Commission of Inquiry under the Commission of Enquiries Act while mentioning findings on DDCA’s alleged wrongdoings by various probe panels in the recent past including the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO). BJP MP Kirti Azad, who has been campaigning against the alleged corruption in Delhi’s cricket body, on Monday demanded an ED and DRI probe into its affairs.
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