Former Indian cricketers Kirti Azad, Bishan Singh Bedi and others on Monday moved the Delhi High Court demanding appointment of an independent administrator to look into the alleged financial irregularities in the DDCA.
The suspended BJP MP said that beside DDCA, he in his petition has impleaded the central and state governments, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and all current and former 13 DDCA officials, including its former president Arun Jaitley.
The plea, filed by former Indian cricketers Azad, Bishan Singh Bedi, Maninder Singh, Dronacharya awardee cricket coach Gurcharan Singh and two others, sought direction to the Centre “to cancel the privileges like subsidised land that have been extended to Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) and to ensure that no loss is caused to exchequer”.
Maintaining that Azad and others were “aggrieved by the financial mismanagement and the general mismanagement of the affairs” of the cricketing body, the plea said an investigation by a “SIT or a court-monitored investigation by CBI” be carried out to look into the criminal offence committed by DDCA officials.
It sought “appointment of an administrator to administer in DDCA, and to ensure the preparation of electoral rolls, and for the conduct of fresh elections to the working committee” of the cricketing body.
“The petitioners (Azad and others) apprehend that the CBI will not be able to conduct a free and fair investigation of allegations made against DDCA, especially since Arun Jaitley, during whose tenure as President most of the allegation pertain to, is presently a senior Cabinet Minister in the Union Council of Ministers and is also the leader of the House is the Rajya Sabha,” the plea said.
Kotla to lose 520 seats
The under-fire DDCA officials on Monday deposited an amount of Rs 83 lakh as land assessment fee of Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium to the land & Development Office (l&DO) as 520 seats are set to be removed under the new regulations set by MCD.
“We have got the acknowledgement receipt for the draft that we have submitted. Expected by Wednesday, we will get the NOC from the l&DO. The MCD engineers today inspected the stadium and told us about all the requirements. The removal of 520 seats, which was a deviation from stadium plan, has already started. The work has started for areas allocated for toilets which were earlier changed into food courts,” a senior DDCA official said.
Court allows Jaitley’s plea
A court here on Monday allowed union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s plea seeking summoning of records of Delhi and District Cricket Association in a criminal defamation complaint filed by him against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Khangwal allowed Jaitley’s plea seeking summoning of records of DDCA from December 1999 to December 2003.