Suresh Kalmadi granted permission to attend London Olympics

Zeenews Sports Bureau

Sacked CWG Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi, accused in a games-related graft case, has been given permission by the Delhi High court on Friday to attend the 2012 Olympics in London. Kalmadi on Thursday sought Delhi court`s permission to attend the 2012 Olympics. In his plea to Special CBI Judge Talwant Singh, Kalmadi had said he is a member of International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) Council and sought permission to go to the United Kingdom for the games from July 26 to August 13. "Applicant (Kalmadi), in his capacity, as a member of the IAAF Council and as president of Asian Athletics Association (AAA), is required to attend certain meetings, conferences and matters of the IAAF during the London 2012 Olympics from July 26 to August 13," Kalmadi had said in his application. The Lok Sabha MP and 10 others have been charge-sheeted by the CBI under various provisions of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly "illegally" awarding contract to install Timing, Scoring and Results (TSR) system for the 2010 Commonwealth Games to Swiss Timing, causing a loss of over Rs 90 crore to the exchequer. He also placed on record the invitation from IAAF Council and the general programme schedule of the Olympics and details of travel ticket sent to him by the association`s General Secretary Essar Gabriel. Earlier in April this year, Kalmadi and former OC Secretary General Lalit Bhanot were allowed by the court to visit Kazakhstan to attend a meeting of 73rd Asian Athletics Association (AAA) Council. Besides Kalmadi, former OC Secretary General Lalit Bhanot, the other nine accused in the case are CWG OC`s Director General V K Verma, Director General (Procurement) Surjit Lal, Joint Director General (Sports) A S V Prasad and Treasurer M Jayachandran. They are no more associated with the sporting body. Promoters of two construction companies - P D Arya and A K Madan of Faridabad-based Gem International and A K Reddy and his firm AKR Constructions are also accused in the case. Besides, the two firms, Swiss Timing Omega - the Swiss firm which was awarded the contract allegedly at exorbitant rates - and AKR Constructions are also accused in the case. With PTI inputs