The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) supported Finance Minister Arun Jaitley against all allegations put forward by the AAP. They said that all these charges were completely baseless and without any substance.
It was the second successive day when the whole top-executive body of the DDCA came down to address issues of the media while they rebutted almost every allegation put forward to them point-by-point.
AAP on Thursday alleged huge financial bunglings in DDCA during his 13 year-old tenure as its chief, saying large amounts were siphoned off through fake companies besides other irregularities including in team selection.
Jaitley received immense support from the DDCA’s working president Chetan Chauhan. Chauhan defended by saying that Jaitley worked for the betterment of cricket. It was due to him that Feroz Shah Kotla is a world-class facility and there is no need for him to be dragged into this controversy.
Chauhan read out the break-up of expenses incurred during the renovation of Feroz Shah Kotla to substantiate that there were no siphoning of funds during Jaitley’s tenure as DDCA president.
“We spoke yesterday and clarified a few points at our end. We are not hiding anything nor will we hide,” he said.
“Yesterday I said the cost of building stadium is Rs 114 crore. Initially, the contract given to EPIL was of 27 crore for one block in ground floor. But when we made three storeyed we realised capacity will increase to 45,000. Costs escalated to Rs 57.20 crore for initial construction. Then other additions made it Rs 114 crore which I wrongly said Rs 141 crore yesterday. I can provide the break-up,” he added.
Asked how Jaitley can get a clean chit, Chauhan said, “No embezzlement took place during Jaitley’s tenure. You can check SFIO report. There were only procedural lapses and we have compounded (paid fine) for those lapses. There are no criminal cases during his period as pr as president. Had there been anything SFIO would have taken action
“Also in 2012, the government was different and enquiry completed during the tenure of the previous government and all the irregularities were taken care of. So Mr Jaitley was not in power at that time,” said Chauhan