The verbal duel between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which heads the Delhi government, and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley escalated on Thursday with AAP alleging large-scale corruption in the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA), which was headed by Jaitley for 13 years till December 2013.
At a press conference, AAP demanded Jaitley’s resignation to enable a “fair” enquiry into allegations of “financial irregularities” in DDCA, as pointed out by a report submitted by a government-appointed committee.
The Finance Minister, however, rubbished Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s allegations that the recent CBI raids at the Delhi Secretariat were done to search for DDCA files, some of which had Jaitley’s name.
In a Facebook post, titled “Falsehood as Free Speech”, Jaitley said: “The Delhi Chief Minister, Mr Arvind Kejriwal, seems to believe in untruth and defamation, delivered in a language that borders on hysteria.”
On the allegations in the report, which was extensively quoted by AAP at the press conference, Jaitley said: “The SFIO, under the UPA regime, investigated and could not find a shred of evidence against me.
No personal allegation was ever made against me nor did I ever feel the need of contradicting it.”
At the press confernce, AAP spokesperson Raghav Chadha, quoting from a report by a three-member government-constituted committee, alleged that DDCA siphoned off money from the cricket body through proxy firms.
"They were paying five companies which have the same address, same e-mail IDs and same directors," said the AAP leader, alleging that for construction of a portion of the stadium, DDCA got Rs 24-crore worth projects sanctioned, but later paid Rs 114 crore. "Where are the remaining Rs 90 crore? Also no approval from Municipal Corporation was ever taken," he said.
An AAP statement said the Delhi government had received many complaints, including one from Kirti Azad, a former cricketer and a sitting MP from the ruling BJP, on issues such as making payments to fabricating accounts, malfeasance, conspiracy to commit forgery regarding false age certificates, tax evasion, violation of corporate laws, among others.
The allegations include DDCA “illegally” constructing 10 corporate boxes in the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium and “sub-leasing” these for 10 years to corporates for a collective approximate amount of Rs 36 crore.
“The fact that the corporate boxes are illegal is apparent from the fact that there are no building approvals or completion certificates. Further, these illegally constructed corporate boxes have been leased without the approval of the land owners, i.e. Government of India, which is a clear violation of the licence conditions and also amounts to an infringement of Section 406 of the Indian Penal Code, being criminal breach of trust on account of misuse for unjust enrichment of public land provided to the DDCA at a heavy subsidy,” the statement added.
It said pending an inquiry, the administration of cricket should be handed over to a “committee of respected cricketers and other persons of proven integrity to be appointed by the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi.”