CWG scam: Bhanot flouted procedure for drafting minutes

NEW DELHI: Former Secretary General of CWG Organising Committee Lalit Bhanot, arrested for his alleged role in a scam, flouted the standard procedures to be followed for drafting minutes of the Committee's meeting on purchasing of equipment, a senior OC official has told CBI.

In his statement to the CBI, OC Deputy Director General (Sports) Gurdyal Singh Bawa, who has been arrayed as one of the prosecution witnesses, said Bhanot then being Chairman of Committee of Sports Surfaces and Sports Equipment used to finalise the minutes of Committee without obtaining signature and suggestions of its members.

"On being asked it is stated that standard procedure of the draft minutes of a committee being circulated to all members, obtaining their suggestions and corrections/additions /alteration if any, and thereafter preparation of final minutes of the committee before the meeting of the next committee was not followed.

"No signatures of the members of the committee were taken on the final minutes to be kept on record. It is stated that the minutes of the committee were finalised by Lalit Bhanot and, thereafter, I used to sign it," Bawa said in his statement which is a part of the charge sheet filed by the CBI in the case.

Bawa's statement is annexed with the charge sheet filed by the CBI in a Delhi court on May 20 against former OC Chairman Suresh Kalmadi, Bhanot and others for their alleged involvement in the Timing, Scoring and Result (TSR) scam in which a contract was illegally awarded to the Swiss firm.