DDCA row: Kirti Azad targets BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur

Kirti Azad

New Delhi: Suspended BJP MP Kirti Azad today targeted more politicians, including party MP and BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur, involved in cricket governance and claimed the SFIO probe report had recommended "prosecution" of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the DDCA affairs.

He also appeared to support Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's allegation that a DDCA official had sought sexual favours from a woman if she wanted her son to be part of its cricket team, saying it was not a new thing and he had raised a similar issue in 2007.

At a press conference here, Azad quoted from the report of Serious Fraud Investigation Office, which had gone into the Delhi cricket body affairs, to claim that it had recommended prosecution of Jaitley among others but it has not been done in the last three years.

"Under the Companies Act, 1956, all the directors were to be assigned particular roles and if they are not, then the term (for action against them) is compunding. 27 executive members, including Jaitley, were not assigned any role. 24 of them including Jaitley did not compound.

"So SFIO recommended that under Section 5 G of the Companies Act, the Registrar of Companies should prosecute them for not compounding. It shows the BCCI is above law. It has been three years since the recommendation but they have not been prosecuted," he said.

Demanding government oversight of sports administration, he blamed "seven-eight politicians affiliated to the BCCI for the failure of then Sports Minister Ajay Maken in pushing a bill in this regard when the UPA was in power.

Hitting back at Jaitley who had called him a "Trojan horse", he said, "these were the Trojan horses who did not let it come. Trojan horses in and outside the Cabinet and outside. I hope it does come. I just love that man (Maken)."

Asked to name these politicians, he named Jaitley, Thakur, Rajeev Shukla, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Farooq Abdullah and Praful Patel. All of them were then, and most still are, involved in cricket administration except Patel, who is All India Football Federation President.

Referring to Thakur, the three-time MP from Darbhagna said, "You cannot wear two caps. This is a conflict of interest. Either you are in Parliament or you are associated with a sports association."

Azad also cited NCA chief Sharad Pawar, who has been extensively involved in sports administration, as he demanded that politicians should not be allowed to be in sports bodies.