AICF mulls disciplinary action against its former secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan

Chennai: The All India Chess Federation is mulling disciplinary action against its former secretary and current FIDE advisory board member Bharat Singh Chauhan after he denied the existence of any allegedly missing documents linked to his tenure.

On Wednesday, the AICF sent out a notice to all its members about its upcoming Special General Body Meeting to be held on September 12.

Among the discussion points in the SGM would be to "take necessary action with regard to the disciplinary proceedings initiated against Mr Bharat Singh, Mr Naresh Sharma, Dr Vipnesh Bhardwaj and Mr AK Verma by the General Body of AICF".

Chauhan, currently also the President of the Delhi Chess Association, was issued a show cause notice on August 5 and asked to submit some of the documents allegedly missing from his tenure as the AICF Secretary, which ended in 2022.

Along with Chauhan, former AICF Treasurer Naresh, another former Secretary Dr Bhardwaj, and former Interim Secretary Verma were also served the same notice.

However, Chauhan has categorically denied that any documents pertaining to AICF's operations during his tenure were missing in his reply to the show cause notice. A similar denial has been issued by Verma.

Chauhan also went to the extent of lodging a formal complaint with the Ethics Committee regarding AICF Secretary Dev Patel accusing him of "blatant and brazen disregard for the established rules and procedures of the Federation".

Chauhan, when asked about the latest development, said he was unaware of the exact action being considered against him.

"The Ethics Committee has not mentioned what action they are going to take against me," he told PTI.

"The reason why I went to the Ethics Committee is because I'm bedridden, and they are in a hurry to remove me. Even though I am unable to move, I will take it up legally along with the other members."

Chauhan said AICF has shown double standards in its handling of the matter by targetting him while appointing another show-caused official Verma as its Head Of Operations.

"Interestingly, while the show cause notice was also issued to Mr Verma on August 5, just four days later (on August 9), he was appointed as the Head Of Operations of the AICF.

"The logic for this is perplexing to me. This is all a game, a power game being played by the AICF," he alleged.

However, a senior AICF official clarified that while Chauhan was entitled to his opinion, the federation too is bound to assess all the options.

"AICF had sent Chauhan the notice, and he has every right to his opinion on the matter. But similarly, the federation too has the right to assess his answer and consider the options on its part, which includes a possible disciplinary action against him," the official strongly told PTI on the conditions of anonymity.

Also, PTI reached out to Dr Bhardwaj, who refused to speak on the matter but confirmed that he would take necessary action.

Additionally, it has also been learnt from reliable sources that apart from the missing documents, allocation of funds, especially during the 2022 Chess Olympiad tenders, is also being probed.