The Games took place in Delhi from 3 to 14 October, 2010. Even before the event, the collapse of a new pedestrian bridge near the CWG main venue—Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium—made international news.
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The event changed the face of Delhi but ultimately unseated the Congress government, led by Dikshit. Every aspect of the city beautification and games management—from upgrading street lighting to renovation of stadiums—was marred by allegations of mismanagement and irregularities.
A CAG audit report pointed out that government procedures had not been adhered to to meet the delay in the timelines. “Inexplicable delays in decision making—which put pressure on timelines, and thereby, led to the creation of an artificial or consciously created sense of urgency. Since the target date was immovable, such delays could only be overcome by seeking, and liberally granting, waivers to laid down governmental procedures,” the report noted.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered at least 19 FIRs. However, in the last 15 years, nobody has been able to fix the responsibility for the ‘scam’.
At least 11 FIRs have been closed, so far. These included FIRs related to the construction of badminton and squash courts at Siri Fort Stadium and another related to the upgrade and renovation of the Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Swimming Pool Complex.
The first conviction came five years after the ‘scam’ in August 2015 on an FIR that pertained to the upgradation of street lighting in Delhi. However, appeals against this judgment have been pending since then, with all the accused—four officials of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and two directors of a company—out on bail.
Another conviction in a case related to upgrading and renovating two stadiums has been challenged in the Delhi High Court. The trial court had convicted two directors of a firm, but acquitted the government officials involved.
Former Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi, the chairman of the Games organising committee, was also implicated in the allegations.
While one case against him has been closed, he faces another case of alleged irregularities in awarding a contract for the installation of a timing-scoring-result (TSR) system to a Swiss firm at an exorbitant cost, causing a loss of more than Rs 90 crore to the exchequer. Starting May 2011, this case has come up before the judge at least 662 times.
With 11 accused and more than 80 prosecution witnesses, the case remains stuck in a special court for MPs and MLAs at Delhi’s Rouse Avenue District Court at the prosecution evidence stage.
At least four other pending CWG-related cases are going through a similar rigmarole, all waiting to answer one question—’Who was responsible for the alleged scam that changed the face of the national capital?’
“This quite clearly proves that there was nothing in CWG. Also, the CAG report did not have anything extraordinary in that report compared to all other CAG investigations that take place,” Sheila Dikshit’s son and former MP Sandeep Dikshit told ThePrint.
Sandeep Dikshit also told ThePrint that except for three to four stadiums, nearly all the other infrastructure was not Commonwealth infrastructure. “This was something that was told to me by Delhi government ministers and Mrs. Dikshit…These projects were only labelled Commonwealth projects,” he said.
All the infrastructure created for CWG by the Delhi government “still lasts”, he asserted.
“There have not been any cracks, despite the allegations of substandard material. Those roads are still standing, and that infrastructure is still shining. So the CWG infrastructure, without doubt, was of high quality,” he added.
662 hearings, no judgment
While fixing the responsibility for the Games, big names in the Games’ organising committee emerged. The FIRs claimed to have exposed several omissions, as well as commissions by public officials, including officials at the helm of affairs.
In 2010, the CBI filed an FIR against Kalmadi in the case related to the award of the lucrative contract to install the TSR system at an exorbitant cost.
The chargesheet was filed on 20 May 2011, calling Kalmadi the “main accused”. It was followed with two supplementary chargesheets, with a list of witnesses and documents. Other than Kalmadi, the chargesheet named 8 other people, including CWG organising committee’s secretary general Lalit Bhanot and director general V.K. Verma, and two companies.
Kalmadi was arrested on 24 April 2011. Nine months on, in January 2012, the Delhi High Court granted bail to both Kalmadi and Verma in an order that noted the trial was “likely to take time”.
As far back as January 2012, the trial court had directed the trial to be conducted on a day-to-day basis.
The accused are being tried under Sections 120B, read with Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purposes of cheatin) and 471 (using a forged document as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), along with provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
A monthly progress report submitted by the district court to the Delhi High Court for November 2024 spoke about cross-examination of witnesses being “lengthy and time-consuming”. Several of these reports, seen by ThePrint, blamed the counsel for the accused for seeking adjournments several times. Also, the HC was informed that efforts were on to examine the witnesses on the same day and dispose of the applications expeditiously.
Not just the accused, the progress report for July 2024 noted that the prosecution had sought adjournment twice that month because they would be filing a supplementary list of documents and that the Investigating Officer (IO) was busy probing another case in Mumbai.
A lawyer involved in the case told ThePrint that the evidence stage in the case has been ongoing since 2013. “Most of the witnesses in the case are retired or transferred government officials, so there has been some delay in getting their testimonies,” he said.
In September last year, the court couldn’t hear the case because one of the prosecution witnesses lives out of the station and “is busy in building of his house and marriage of his son”.
The progress report for November 2024 said that the expected date of disposal of the case is July 2025. However, this date was extended by a few months in every monthly progress report filed last year.
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Lightening up Delhi
In the run-up to the Games, not just the venue but the entire capital was dressed up and given a makeover. The city had to shine at par with international standards, so the streets were lit, with upgraded streetlights on major roads. These street lights brought about the first conviction in a case five years after the Games.
In 2015, six accused were found to have conspired and manipulated tender documents pertaining to the award of a contract worth over Rs 34 crore for the upgradation of street lighting at a 100-km stretch of roads. The CBI alleged that that led to a loss of Rs 3.26 crore to the government and corresponding undue pecuniary advantage to the company finally awarded the contract.
Four MCD officials—former superintendent engineer D.K. Sugan, executive engineer O.P. Mahala, accountant Raju V. and tender clerk Gurcharan Singh—were all found guilty. The court also found J.P. Singh and T.P. Singh, directors of Sweka Powertech Engineers Pvt Ltd, the Rajouri Garden-based company that bagged the contract, guilty as well. While the MCD officials and J.P. Singh got four-year jail terms, T.P. Singh got a six-year sentence.
However, it was not as if the court found the CBI investigation top-notch. Among other things, the CBI alleged that the MCD and company officials surreptitiously made corrections and overwrote the tender documents. They allegedly increased the rate of some articles from Rs 930 to Rs 1,930 and from Rs 800 to Rs 1,800. These corrections in the rates increased the total tender amount by Rs 1.42 crore.
While one of these overwritten entries—changing the rate from Rs 215 to Rs 315—was sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), the change to Rs 1,930 and Rs 1,800 was not.
“During the trial, it could not be established that the rates in the entries at item No. 20 (a) and 20 (b) were changed/altered from Rs 930 to Rs 1,930 and from Rs 802 to Rs 1,802, respectively, as the necessary corrections in the tender document…were never sent to the CFSL for the expert opinion…for the reasons best known to the IO or the CBI,” the court said.
However, the convicts filed appeals against the judgment right away. The HC suspended the sentence of the convicts over the course of the next few months and granted them bail, noting that “the appeals were not likely to be heard in the near future”.
“The appeals were admitted and haven’t come for hearing since,” a lawyer representing one of the accused told ThePrint.
The accused are now out on bail, and the appeal remains pending, the lawyer confirmed to ThePrint.
The stadium that missed all deadlines
The Games were supposed to be Delhi’s moment of glory, but the dream began falling apart before the events started.
One prominent story of failure was the Shivaji Stadium, which was supposed to be the hockey training venue. While several deadlines were missed before the Games, this stadium took the cake. It opened for competitions only in October 2012, two years after the Games.
The CAG report asserted that the responsibility for the failure to deliver the venue in time had to be fixed.
When Shivaji Stadium was picked as the hockey venue, and the dome-shaped Talkatora Stadium was chosen as the Boxing Sports venue, both the facilities had to be upgraded and renovated to get the required facilities incorporated. Both the contracts went to Mumbai-based Raja Aederi Consultants Pvt Ltd.
In May 2017, a special court handed a two-and-a-half-year jail term to two directors of the firm—Raja Aederi and Uday Shankar Bhat. It also imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on the company. However, the court acquitted the then-superintending engineer R.S. Thakur and executive engineer V.K. Gulati of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).
The court opined that the company directors had “conspired and dishonestly obtained the contracts by misrepresentation and concealment of facts after putting NDMC officials under deception.” The company was found to have concealed that it had no architectural consultancy experience of renovation or upgradation of any sports stadium.
It also came to light that Aederi and Bhat misrepresented in the bid documents that their company was involved in an ongoing architectural consultancy project in Mumbai.
However, in July 2017, the Delhi HC temporarily suspended the sentence of Aederi and Bhat after their lawyers contended that Bhat had blood cancer and Aederi was 86 years old and in need of doctor’s supervision. The court then confirmed its order suspending their sentence in January 2018, noting that the appeals were “likely to take some time for hearing”.
A lawyer—involved in the case—told ThePrint that the appeals were admitted but haven’t come up for any hearings. “This is the usual course of appeals in the high court,” he said.
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The ED net
The CBI also sought to prosecute UT-cadre IAS officer and former NDMC chairman Parimal Rai in the case related to the renovation of Shivaji Stadium. However, in 2015, the Narendra Modi government refused the grant of sanction to prosecute him “for want of sufficient evidence”.
At the time, the court also named Jiashu Zhao, an alleged representative of China Railway Shisiju Group Corporation in India, in the Shivaji stadium ‘scam’.
However, Jiashu’s trial was separated from the other accused’s after the CBI could not execute a non-bailable warrant against him because there is no Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) between India and China.
After the trial court judgments convicting Aederi and Bhat, it was the Enforcement Directorate’s turn to fix the responsibility for the CWG mishap.
The ED got involved early on and registered a complaint in August 2012 against Aederi and Bhat. After their conviction in 2017, the ED felt there was sufficient incriminating evidence against the duo for initiation of proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
In 2019, the ED attached properties worth Rs 1.3 crore of Raja Aederi Consultants Pvt Ltd through provisional attachment orders.
However, after concerns over jurisdiction, a special court in Delhi, only in December last year, found that prima facie, there was sufficient material on record to proceed against the duo. It, therefore, took cognizance of the complaint filed by the ED, ordering that Aederi and Bhat be summoned through the ED. The trial is therefore set to begin.
A combined chargesheet
Before the Commonwealth Games, a relay around the world begins at Buckingham Palace in London, similar to the Olympic Torch relay. The baton carries a message from the Head of the Commonwealth—currently, King Charles. The Queen’s Baton Relay will, now, be renamed the King’s Baton Relay since Queen Elizabeth II died in September 2022.
The Queen’s Baton Relay was the traditional curtain-raiser to the Games. However, in India, this relay also became the subject matter of two FIRs.
The CBI registered two FIRs in November 2010 and filed a combined chargesheet in the two cases, alleging financial irregularities in the relay.
It implicated former organising committee joint director-general T.S. Darbari, deputy director-general Sanjay Mahendroo and treasurer M. Jaychandran. It also named London-based businessman Ashish Patel and his two firms—AM Car and Van Hire Ltd, and AM Films.
The organisers, according to CBI, conspired to award contracts to Patel’s firm at exorbitant rates. While AM Films was involved in the installation of three video screens near London’s Buckingham Palace, AM Car and Van was hired for local transportation and logistical support.
The case is currently at the prosecution evidence stage and involves witnesses residing in the United Kingdom. In an order passed on 31 July last year, the court allowed a CBI application for recording evidence of these foreign witnesses through video conferencing.
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The trials that never ended
Another case related to the alleged irregularities in merchandising and retailing for the 2010 event is now pending.
An FIR was filed against six former officials of the CWG Organising Committee (OC)—V.K. Verma, M. Jaychandran, Surjit Lal, Ram Mohan, Group Captain K. Uday Kumar Reddy and Sangita Welingkar—back in 2011. Along with them, two firms, Premier Brands Pvt Ltd and Compact Disc India Ltd, and their director Suresh Kumar Seengal, have also been put on trial.
Premier Brands Pvt Ltd was appointed as the Official Master Licensee for Merchandising and Online and Retail Concessionaire for the Commonwealth Games. The Evaluation Committee for the Games considered Compact Disc India Ltd as the parent company for Premier Brands, and the technical parameters of Compact Discs India Ltd were considered for qualifying Premier Brands company.
The CBI has alleged that the accused public servants abused their official position to cause a pecuniary advantage of over Rs 3.5 crore to Seengal and his company, causing a corresponding wrongful loss to the exchequer. It also alleged that the public officials gave false information that Premier Brands was the subsidiary of Compact Discs, concealing the ineligibility of Premier Brands for the responsibility.
This case is pending at the prosecution evidence stage and is set to come up before a judge in Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Courts on 7 February.
Another trial pertains to what is known as the Overlays ‘scam’. The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) alleged that the organising committee hired equipment for overlay works at Rs 42.34 crore—14 times the actual price of Rs 2.80 crore—giving undue advantage to the companies involved. Venue overlays are temporary facilities at various venues, provided during the operational phase of the Games.
On the basis of these allegations, the CBI registered an FIR in 2011. But it was only in October 2022 that the court finally took cognizance of the offences, giving a green signal to the trial. The court is now hearing arguments on the charges.
The trials that never began
At least 10 FIRs related to the ‘scam’ were closed by 2014, according to media reports from the time.
For instance, in May 2014, a special CBI court accepted the CBI’s closure report in one case related to the alleged financial irregularities in the contract for the construction of badminton and squash courts at Siri Fort Stadium.
The FIR was filed against 10 Delhi Development Authority (DDA) officials, including retired chief engineer V.K. Panchal and executive engineer N.C. Godlaw. it had also named Mumbai-based private company B E Billimoria & Co. The CBI alleged that the accused entered into a criminal conspiracy for causing undue loss to the government, and consequent gain to the contractor BE Billimoria & Co to the tune of Rs 36 crore.
However, the CBI filed a closure report in court, submitting that it could not find any incriminating evidence against any accused.
That same month, that same court accepted another CBI closure report in a case filed against suspended Prasar Bharati CEO Baljit Singh Lalli, the company SIS Live, and Zoom Communications CMD Wasim Dehlvi.
The CBI FIR alleged that SIS Live was favoured by making favourable contract conditions for awarding the Rs 246 crore production and coverage contract for the Games. It alleged that the amended contract conditions allowed SIS Live to sub-contract the contract to Zoom Communication for Rs 177 crore to execute the contract on their behalf, causing a loss of more than Rs 100 crore to the public exchequer.
This special court also accepted another closure report in May 2014, in an FIR related to the broadcast networking services. While the budgetary estimation for telecom services was only Rs 30-35 crore, MTNL assessed the cost of the telecom network for CWG at Rs 507.12 crore. The CBI claimed that the eligibility conditions for the contract were designed to suit only one bidder—Noida-based private company HCL Infosystems. The case was registered against several accused, including R.S.P. Sinha, former CMD of MTNL.
Similarly, in April 2014, the special court accepted a closure report in a case filed against Central Public Works Department (CPWD) officials, including then CWG project manager S.S. Mondal. The CBI FIR initially alleged that the public officials conspired to jack up prices and award the tender for the upgrade and renovation of the Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Swimming Pool Complex to a company at very high rates.
One of the cases against Kalmadi was also closed in February 2016. This FIR was also filed against CWG Chief Operating Officer V.K. Gautam, CWG Treasurer A.K. Mattoo and Secretary General of the Games organising committee Lalit Bhanot. The complaint raised questions over the award of contracts worth over 70 crores to Mauritius-based firm Event Knowledge Systems, as a consultant for venue management, games workforce planning and project management services.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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