Accused should not continue as office bearer: Sports minister

New Delhi – A day after Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Suresh Kalmadi was released on bail, Sports Minister Ajay Maken Friday said any accused official should not carry on as an office bearer in any sports body.

“Any accused person should not continue as an office bearer. And it should not also be left for him to decide whether he wants to continue or not,” said Maken.

Maken said the proposed sports bill would be very crucial in avoiding such situations. As per prevailing laws, Kalmadi is well within his rights to take over the reins of the IOA from acting president Vijay Kumar Malhotra since he never resigned nor was he sacked by the general body of the IOA.

The sports minister said the sports bill when introduced will clear all doubts.

“The sports bill will clear all doubts that is the reason why the bill will be more important. The bill will bring transparency. Proper system needs to be in place so that these things do not occur in future again. In the name of autonomy, no federation can allow corruption,” he said.

Kalmadi, chief of the New Delhi Commonwealth Games organising committee, and ex-director general V.K. Verma were granted bail by the Delhi High Court Thursday after nine months in jail.

Kalmadi was arrested by the CBI April 26 while Verma was arrested Feb 23, 2011 in the Timing, Scoring and Result system scam related to the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Besides, Kalmadi and Verma, nine others have been arrested for their alleged role in awarding a contract for installing the Timing-Scoring-Result system to Swiss Times Omega at an exorbitant cost of Rs.141 crore, which entailed a loss of over Rs.95 crore to the public exchequer.

- IANS