NEW DELHI (TIP): Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, December 30, came under fresh attack over DDCA affairs with AAP accusing him of pressuring the then Police Commissioner to
“close” investigation involving a cricket club of a bank in 2011 while suspended BJP MP Kirti Azad claimed the SFIO probe report had recommended his “prosecution”.
In a related development, the DDCA said it has decided to file defamation case against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Azad besides other top AAP functionaries for making “wild and baseless” allegations of corruption against the cricket body.
Continuing its offensive against him, AAP released two letters, purportedly written by Jaitley, to then Delhi Police Commissioner BK Gupta and then Special Commissioner Ranjit Narayan, requesting them to “fairly” deal with the matter and “close” the case since “DDCA has done no wrong”.
The party also renewed its demand for Jaitley’s resignation in the wake of the “fresh disclosures”. The letter to Gupta is dated October 27, 2011 while the one written to Narayan is dated May 5, 2012.
Senior AAP leader Ashutosh claimed that the letters “punctured” the Finance Minister’s repeated assertions that he was in no way connected with any wrongdoing in the Delhi and District Cricket Association, which he headed for 13 years till 2013.
BJP dismisses allegations
Reacting to the allegations, BJP spokesperson GVL Narsimha Rao asked as to what was wrong in Jaitley writing a letter to the police commissioner. “He was not even in power so the charge does not stick.”
In the letter to Narayan, Jaitley is quoted as writing that “some persons have been repeatedly approaching Delhi Police with complaints in relation to the identity of the Syndicate Bank Cricket Club.
“The complaints are completely unsubstantiated and do not disclose any offence. Certain office-bearers of the DDCA are feeling harassed by repeated questioning in this regard. I would request you to look into this matter so that it can be fairly dealt with and closed since the DDCA has done no wrong.”
When contacted, DDCA said the club is under them and that it currently falls in the “institutional” category.
“There are two types of clubs – institutional and private. While a private club receives a subsidy, an institutional does not and that is the broad difference between the two,” a DDCA official said.
Azad, suspended by BJP for anti-party activities, claimed the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) probe report had recommended “prosecution” of Jaitley in the DDCA affairs even as he targeted more politicians, including party MP and BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur.
Azad also appeared to support Kejriwal’s allegation that a DDCA official had sought sexual favors from a woman if she wanted her son to be part of its cricket team, saying it was not a new thing and he had raised a similar issue in 2007.
At a press conference here, Azad quoted from the report of SFIO, which had gone into the Delhi cricket body affairs, to claim that it had recommended “prosecution” of Jaitley among others but it has not been done in the last three years.
“Under the Companies Act, 1956, all the directors were to be assigned particular roles and if they are not, then the term (for action against them) is compounding. As many as 27 executive members, including Jaitley, were not assigned any role. Twenty-four of them, including Jaitley, did not compound.
“So SFIO recommended that under Section 5 G of the Companies Act, the Registrar of Companies should prosecute them for not compounding. It shows the BCCI is above law. It has been three years since the recommendation but they have not been prosecuted,” he said.
Hitting back at Jaitley who had called him a “Trojan horse”, Azad said, “these were the Trojan horses who did not let it come. Trojan horses in and outside the Cabinet. I hope it does come”.
Asked to identify the politicians, he named Jaitley, Thakur, Rajeev Shukla, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Farooq Abdullah and Praful Patel. All of them were then, and most still are, involved in cricket administration except Patel, who is All India Football Federation president.
Referring to Thakur, the three-time MP from Darbhagna said, “You cannot wear two caps. This is a conflict of interest. Either you are in Parliament or you are associated with a sports association.”
Refuting the fresh allegations by Azad and AAP leaders, DDCA said it will sue them having “defamed” the organization.
Addressing a press conference where all top DDCA officials were present, acting president Chetan Chauhan said that a lot of “false” charges have been leveled against the state cricket body and it was forced to take legal recourse against those spreading such disinformation.
Treasurer Ravinder Manchanda said DDCA will file a defamation case against Kejriwal, Azad and others who made the allegations of corruption and financial embezzlement in the DDCA.
Chauhan said three agencies were already probing the cases against the DDCA and there was no need for a fresh probe to be initiated by the AAP government which has appointed a one-member Commission of Inquiry for the purpose. (Source: PTI)