Times of India: Jaitley and Bakshi one of many law firms representing Hockey India: Batra
DELHI: Delhi government on Wednesday formally notified the commission of inquiry to probe charges of financial irregularities and mismanagement in Delhi and District Cricket Association. The commission will be led by former solicitor general Gopal Subramanium and will have to submit its report within three months of its first sitting.
Stepping up his attack against Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted: “There shud be no politician in any sports body. Let sports be handled by professionals. If I were in place of Sh Narendra Modi ji, I wud have immediately sacked Jaitley ji (sic).”
On Wednesday, banned Indian Hockey Federation president KPS Gill wrote to Delhi government to probe the role of Jaitley in the national hockey body, alleging that the Union minister had appointed his daughter as the counsel for Hockey India when he was a member of the advisory board of Hockey India League. The charge was denied by Hockey India.
The matter, however, is likely to be taken up seriously by the government since Aam Aadmi Party had earlier announced that like DDCA they would also be exposing a scam within Hockey India where Jaitley will also find himself implicated. The party has alleged links between Jaitley and Hockey India president Narendra Batra.
Hundreds of AAP activists protested near Jaitley’s official residence on Wednesday morning and were detained by Delhi Police. Cops resorted to water cannons to disperse the crowd and finally detained several protestors, including senior party member Dilip Pandey and MLA Somnath Bharti. The MLA later tweeted: “Detained in Parliament Street (police station) with hundreds of volunteers. Excitement is infectious. God bless AAP!! (sic)”
Reacting to the suspension of BJP MP Kirti Azad from his party on Wednesday, a direct consequence of his charges against Jaitley, Kejriwal tweeted: “Kirti Azad’s fault was that he raised his voice against corruption. Today BJP has been fully exposed. BJP is totally steeped in corruption. There is no democracy in BJP. Honest voices are muzzled to protect corruption.”
Azad, along with former cricketer Bishan Singh Bedi, have complained against the corruption in DDCA to Delhi government alleging Jaitley’s role in its affairs. The inquiry committee set up by the government has also been asked to probe “any acts of omission and commission by DDCA and its office-bearers during the period between January 1, 1992 and November 30, 2015 and fix responsibility”. Jaitley was president of the association from 1999 to 2013.
He has filed a criminal defamation suit against Kejriwal and five other AAP members and has sought Rs 10 crore in damages. Even as the controversy surrounding the alleged corruption in DDCA continues to rage with Kirti Azad and the Aam Aadmi Party targeting finance minister Arun Jaitley, former Indian Hockey federation (IHF) chief KPS Gill joined the tirade against Jaitley by alleging on Wednesday that the minister’s lawyer-daughter Sonali was paid huge sums of money by Hockey India (HI) as consulting fees.
Gill alleged that Jaitley had used his position as an advisory board member of HI to get his daughter the contract with HI.
Hockey India president Narinder Batra reacted strongly to these allegations and told the media later in the evening that the said law firm, Chambers of Jaitley and Bakshi, was one of the many engaged by HI to defend cases.
“We defended ourselves against IHF in Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) two months back and I thought that it should be the end of KPS Gill and IHF. But some people never get tired of raising unnecessary, baseless issues again and again. From 2009 onwards, when we (HI) had our first election, KPS Gill, who has got rich people on board, has used them for dragging us in litigations all over the country,” Batra said.
“I remember when we were holding elections in 2010, we were fighting cases in 22 courts all over India at one time, courtesy KPS Gill. We have defended ourselves in CAS and judicial council in Switzerland and London and all over India,” he added.
“We have 25-30 law firms. Jaitley and Bakshi is one of the many law firms and lawyers we have engaged to defend us in cases which were filed by IHF and its associates. We used their services in two cases in Mumbai – one filed by Nimbus and the other by our player Raghunath. The case went for 18 months which had 6-7 hearings. Besides that, we used their services in drafting of contracts for HIL, players, franchises, marquee players… those are important documents which have to be prepared by lawyers,” Batra added. “The law firm was paid less than 2 percent of our total litigation cost. In 2015-16, courtesy KPS Gill’s case in CAS, we ended up spending Rs 42 lakhs on that one case. We had to engage foreign and Indian lawyers. It’s all courtesy Gill and his people,” he pointed.
Batra dragged former Indian Premier League commissioner Lalit Modi into the controversy by saying, “Lalit Modi had tweeted around five months back that Rs 1cr, 75 lakhs was given to Jaitley & Bakshi firm. Modi has no work in London so he likes to blow things out of proportion and Gill has picked it all up from there.”
Meanwhile, responding to Kirti Azad’s allegations of getting Rs 5 crore from ONGC as sponsorship money, Batra said: “Yes, ONGC was one of our sponsors last year. People say it was because BJP government was in power. In 2009, Steel Authority of India had given me Rs 5 crore. Did I give commission to Sonia Gandhi? In 2013, Manmohan government sanctioned Rs 120 crore for Under-17 football World Cup. Why?
Did Manmohan or Sonia get any commission for that,” he questioned.
“The Centre and states are all involved in running of sports, where public and private sectors contribute equally. You cannot run sports without their support. Academies all over India are run by state governments. Is that corruption?” Batra fumed.