Doubts persist on Kalmadi Games email

The email furnished yesterday by Suresh Kalmadi to defend his controversial hiring of a British firm for a Commonwealth Games-related event may have been doctored, highly placed government sources said today.

The email was purportedly sent by Raju Sebastian, a junior official at the Indian high commission in London, to the Kalmadi-headed Games organising committee.

Kalmadi had claimed the email as proof that it was the high commission that had recommended AM Films for “transportation, accommodation and other services” during the Queen’s Baton relay in London last October.

Government sources said the high commission was scrutinising its emails sent in September and October 2009, but was yet to come across the one furnished by Kalmadi.

They suggested that some other email sent by Sebastian to Games organising committee officials may have been doctored.

The high commission is preparing a reply to Kalmadi’s claims. “We are examining all aspects of the issue in detail,” news agency IANS quoted mission spokesperson Raveesh Kumar as saying today.

Agencies quoted unnamed mission officials as saying that Sebastian did not recall having sent such an email, prompting his seniors to call for all the September-October emails to ascertain the specific accounts from which correspondence was sent to Games officials.

Kalmadi, who is also president of the Indian Olympic Association, had conceded yesterday that AM had been hired without a written contract or a tendering process. He had, however, claimed the company had been drafted at the last minute, and at Sebastian’s recommendation.

Mission officials say that neither AM Films nor its sister concern is listed as an approved vendor with the high commission, nor is it Sebastian’s brief to deal with such issues.

An NRI, Ashish Patel, owns AM Films and its sister concern, AM Cars and Vans and the Chauffeur Company. The contract for the baton relay was worth about Rs 3.2 crore.

Kalmadi, already buffeted by central vigilance commission revelations about poor construction and corruption relating to the Games, saw his troubles deepen today over the AM contract.

Indian Olympic Association secretary-general Randhir Singh, a long-time Kalmadi critic, has called for an emergency meeting of the executive board of the Games organising committee, where Singh is a vice-president.

Referring to media reports on the AM Films controversy, Randhir wrote to Kalmadi: “Since the situation is grave, the discussion should be held immediately.”

Indian Olympic Association vice-president V.K. Malhotra, a BJP leader, too has called for a meeting to discuss the allegations of corruption in the Games’ preparations. The BJP has said it will issue a “white paper on Commonwealth Games corruption” tomorrow.