Allegations against Arun Jaitley baseless, DDCA not functioning illegally: Chetan Chauhan

The DDCA on Thursday categorically rejected the allegations of financial irregularities made by the Aap Aadmi Party (AAP) against Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and said that such charges were 'absolutely baseless'.

New Delhi: The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) on Thursday categorically rejected the allegations of financial irregularities made by the Aap Aadmi Party (AAP) against Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and said that such charges were 'absolutely baseless'.

Addressing a press conference, DDCA working president Chetan Chauhan defended the construction of a stadium and the expenditure done on it.

“We don't want to hide anything. All allegations against Arun Jaitley are baseless,'' the DDCA working president said.

Giving a detailed break-up of the money spend on the stadium construction and the renovation work, Chauhan said, ''We have spent money like a miser. Only Rs 114 crore were spent on stadium construction, renovation and related works.''

''Everything was done very frugally. We want complete transparency in the DDCA. We completely deny allegations of financial irregularities made by the AAP,'' Chauhan said.

Chauhan maintained, ''all the costs are minimal, we have never spent too much, work given to all companies is genuine.''

The DDCA vice president, however, admitted there might have been procedural lapses in allotment of contracts and release of payments to various firms, and assured strict action against anyone found guilty after an internal probe.

We are not protecting anyone. We are trying to be as transparent as possible, the DDCA working president said.

Hitting back at the AAP, the DDCA official said, ''all costs were cleared by the board, we have all the documents to prove our claim.''

The report which the AAP members showed during their press conference was also not part of their investigation, but of the internal probe conducted by the DDCA itself, he added.

Chauhan also completely denied that the DDCA was working illegally, saying ''We are not functioning illegally.''

Describing Jaitley as an ''honest man with unquestionable integrity'', the DDCA vice president also credited the Finance Minister of providing a beautiful and world class cricket stadium in Delhi.

He said that the reason for escalated costs of the stadium was because capacity earlier was 26,000, but they demolished it and then it was renovated.

"It is recorded in ROC. It was given to EPIL, so I absolutely rubbish the charges," he added.