The six officials of the Sports Authority of India (SAI), who were taken into custody on Thursday, 17 January, in connection with a case of alleged corruption will be produced before the Patiala House Court on Friday, 18 January.
Soon after the arrests, Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Rajyavardhan Rathore tweeted saying when they found out corrupt practices by a few officers in the Department of Sports, they gave information regarding them to the relevant agencies.
The arrests were made during searches at the sports administrator's office in Delhi's Lodhi Road area, officials cited by PTI said. The agency has arrested Director SAI SK Sharma, Junior Accounts Officer Harinder Prasad, Supervisor Lalit Jolly and UDC VK Sharma, besides private contractor Mandeep Ahuja and his employee Yunus, the officials said.
It is alleged that bills of Rs 19 lakh were pending to be cleared by the SAI officials for which a demand of three percent was being made.
The CBI officials reached the SAI headquarters at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium around 5 pm and sealed the entire premises for search and questioning of the alleged staffers, sources in the SAI said, reported PTI.
An SAI source cited by PTI said that the raid happened after SAI Director General Neelam Kapur took up the matter with the CBI.
“The matter came to light before SAI DG six months back after which she informed the sports minister. On the insistence of the minister the DG wrote to the CBI.”SAI source
“There is zero-tolerance for corruption in SAI. We will support any action against corruption,” Neelam Kapoor, DG, SAI told ANI.
The CBI is questioning some officials in this regard.
The accused staff was responsible for procuring all office stationeries and were dealing with tenders of all electronic equipment and furniture required for SAI offices.
The irregularities were going on in SAI for more than a year, the source reportedly said.
(With inputs from ANI, PTI.)
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