Seeking to put further pressure on Arun Jaitley, banned Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) president KPS Gill on Wednesday dragged the Union Finance Minister into the affairs of Hockey India, urging the Delhi government to probe into the BJP stalwart’s “conflict of interest” in the national hockey body.
Former top cop, Gill has written to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, alleging that Jaitley had appointed his daughter Sonali as the counsel for Hockey India when he was a member of the advisory board of Hockey India league.
It is a fresh attack on Jaitley who has been accused by AAP, Congress and BJP MP Kirti Azad of “shielding corruption” when he was the president of Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA).
Gill’s allegations came a day after the Delhi Assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution to set up a Commission of Inquiry over alleged irregularities in the Delhi and DDCA.
IHF secretary Ashok Mathur confirmed the development, saying the letter was sent to Kejriwal two days back. “Yes, Mr. Gill has written to Delhi Chief Minister urging him to investigate Mr. Jaitley’s confilct of interest in HI. As HI is registered under Registrar of Societies, Delhi, the Delhi government has every right to investigate into the complaint,” Mathur told.
Hi rebuts charge
New Delhi: HI President Narinder Batra strongly refuted the allegations, saying Gill’s charges were “baseless”.
Batra said it was just a “creation” by the banned IHF chief to settle scores with him. Batra admitted that Jaitley’s daughter Sonali fought one of the the many cases for HI for a very brief period but just as a professional and it was unfair to attach any motives.
“The time that KPS Gill is talking about, we had a number of cases to fight. To be precise we had 22 cases to fight in that period in different places of the country, so we had to hire a lot of lawyers and lot of law firms. Jaitley and Bakshi firm was one of them. The money that went to them was hardly 2 per cent. So I don’t know where the conflict of interest comes from,” Batra told reporters.
“I just can’t give my cases to anybody. I have to hire some body who is a professional and whom I know. All my dealings and balance sheet is on the HI website,” he added. “It’s all Gill saab’s creation. I dont know what Gill has against me. I am not worried, we come under the RTI,” he asserted.
On HI’s legal battles, Batra said, “There were various cases filed by IHF, courtesy KPS Gill. When we were fighting elections in 2010, I remember we were fighting cases in 22 courts all over India at one time. We have defended ourselves in CAS and judicial council in Switzerland and london.”
Talking about legal firm Jaitley and Bakshi, Batra said, “The services which we used off Jaitley and Bakshi, one was defending two cases in Mumbai, which were filed by Nimbus on Hockey India league and Raghunath one of our athletes. The case went on for almost 18 months. We had 7-8 appearances, they defended that. Out of the total litigation cost not even 2 per cent went to Jaitley and Bakshi. All our legal professional Balance Sheets are on our website. We hide nothing.”
Batra also clarified the allegation of sponsorship rights. “Issue of ONGC has also been raised several times. Yes, ONGC was one of my sponsors last year. Steel Authority of India gave me 5 crore in 2009, then it was Congress government. In 2013 Manmohan Singh’s cabinet sanctioned 120 crore for Under-17 Football World Cup. Did they get a kickback in thatIJ No it doesn’t happen that way. Putting these allegations are wrong. Sports is always run by government support,” Batra said.