CWG scam: Game Kalmadi's men play:video tampering

NEW DELHI: Crucial documents on various aspects of organising Commonwealth Games have gone missing from the organising committee headquarters. It now turns out that the video footage of the meeting of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth Games Federation, held here on October 12, 2009, too have been badly edited, and crucial pieces of information hacked.

The video-recording of the event, which was held at Ashoka Hotel, was viewed by the CBI officials in an attempt to get leads about the arrangements being made by the organising committee to make the sporting event scheduled to be held a year later a success.

But, to their dismay, the print provided to them was severely edited, with vital portions deleted altogether. The CBI, it is learnt, is planning to contact the Commonwealth Games Federation headquarters at London to get hold of another unedited copy that could be lying there.

As per rules, all general assembly meetings of the sports federation, which is attended by representatives of the member countries, is videographed.

The proceedings held here on October 12, 2009, too was video-recorded. Apart from a preview of the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, the meeting saw a detailed presentation from the organising committee of the New Delhi Games.

The presentation, it is learnt, touched almost all aspects, including contracts awarded, the state of the venues and the Games Village.

The CBI believes that contracts to all vendors had been pre-determined by the committee, and that crucial leads could have been obtained by watching the recording of the meeting. But the officials got a rude shock when they went through the footage.

Apart from the alleged sabotage of the video, said sources, other important documents pertaining to the Games have gone missing. While the raids conducted at the organising committee headquarters at the NDCC Tower here yielded vital information on the three cases already lodged by the CBI, many other papers were not available.

Against that backdrop, organising committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi’s December 23 order directing all functional area heads to vacate the office premises after consigning all documents in their custody to the record-room, the officials contend, could have been deliberate, and part of a well-crafted plan.

In passing the diktat, Kalmadi also went against the sports ministry’s earlier directive asking all central government officials on deputation with the organising committee to stay put on their posts till March 31 next year.

Kalmadi’s order was, of course, overturned on Wednesday by CWG CEO Jarnail Singh.