Bhanot is CGOC’s former general secretary. Bhanot and CGOC former director-general Verma were arrested in connection with irregularities in procuring a Rs 107-crore contract for the timing, scoring and result (TSR) system.
The contract was awarded to Swiss company Omega for the Commonwealth Games. The arrest of the duo may lead the CBI to the door steps of Suresh Kalmadi, sources told Deccan Herald.
Kalmadi has already been interrogated by the agency to scrutinise his alleged role in the CWG corruption cases. Kalmadi was present in the Lok Sabha and on Parliament premises during the last two days.
Suresh Kalmadi was earlier removed from the post of secretary, Congress Parliamentary Party, following the corruption charges against him.
The CGOC got bidding from two companies, Omega and MS Spain.
The rates offered by MS Spain were much lower than that of the other. But the Organising Committee chose to go with Omega.
Financial irregularities
Bhanot, who came in for criticism for saying that India has “a hygiene sense” different from other nations, was sacked from the CGOC on January 24, 2011, after the CBI probed the financial irregularities in the October 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Both Bhanot and Verma were interrogated by CBI officials on Wednesday in connection with details relating to the contract given to the Swiss time-keeping company. The accused were taken into custody later. Bhanot has been claiming that all the decisions related to the Commonwealth Games were taken after keeping government officials in the loop.
The investigating agency had registered a regular case on the allegations that certain organising committee officials had entered into a criminal conspiracy with representatives of a Swiss Company and awarded the contact for the TSR system “at an exorbitant cost of Rs 107 crores in a pre-mediated manner, thereby causing huge loss to the government.”