Suspended BJP MP Kirti Azad on Monday said that if he was summoned by a one-man commission of inquiry, instituted by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, to probe DDCA corruption he would “definitely” appear before it.
The Aam Aadmi Party’s Delhi government has appointed well-known lawyer and former Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium to inquire into the DDCA messy affair. Subramanium has accepted to probe the DDCA mess.
Addressing a press conference on Monday, Azad said he was willing to share details of his “own inquiry” with Subramanium.
“If they call me, I will definitely go. It is not a big thing. It is a government commission; not a private commission. It is set up in accordance with the rules and if I am called them I will definitely go,” he said, while replying to a reporter’s query. “Ismein kaun si badi baat hai (what’s so extraordinary about this)?”
Azad also repeated his demand for a CBI inquiry into the ‘DDCA scam’, and said that some Congress leaders were also party to the goings-on at the cricket association.
A former India player, Azad said that MPs Rajeev Shukla and Naveen Jindal and Delhi MLA Arvinder Singh Lovely were directors of the Delhi and District Cricket Association, and by virtue of holding those positions they were also part of the executive committee.
Azad claimed that the previous UPA government did not take action against the DDCA as their nominees were on the DDCA executive committee, and they were thus “party to wrongdoing and remiss in their duties”.
He, however, again said that he was not targeting Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who was DDCA president from 1999 to 2013.
“I have not done anything against party…but I want to expose those who are corrupt in the DDCA,” Azad, who has been raising the DDCA issues for many years, told reporters. “I had brought a lot of things [corruption matters] before the then head [Jaitley], but nobody cared”
Pointing finger at the CBI, Azad wondered why the bureau did not raid the DDCA offices, and instead sent notices to it, saying attempts were being made to hide “corruption.” He still demanded a CBI probe into the matter.
“The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) report that we have been hearing about asked the DDCA multiple times for the documents but only few documents were provided,” Azad said.
The former Delhi captain claimed that he has done his own investigation. “I would like to tell the CBI that I have already done all the investigation,” he said. “There are efforts to stop the move to weed out corruption in sports”.
Listing a number of private firms which, Azad alleged, made money through illegal means, he asked his detractors to find out if they really existed as he wondered if this was not “fraud”.
“I want to ask those who are throwing muck at me that where are these companies. Double and triple payments were made [to them],” the three-time MP from Darbhanga alleged.
He also asked BJP leaders targeting him to be “careful” about their words as he was not attacking the party but corruption in sports and any unfair criticism can harm it.
Azad has the support of many international and Delhi cricketers, including former India captain Bishan Singh Bedi and Surinder Khanna.
