VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, April 11: The genie of the 34th Jharkhand National Games scam which the Jharkhand Anti-Corruption Bureau had bottled in over a decade, is set to haunt many powerful politicians, bureaucrats, and sports mandarins of Jharkhand. The Jharkhand High Court on Monday handed over the investigation of this case to the CBI. The court also directed the CBI to investigate the role of police officials who allegedly delayed and deviated the investigation.
A Division bench comprising Chief Justice Dr. Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad passed the order while hearing a batch of PILs filed by Sushil Kumar Singh Mantu, Surya Singh Besra of Jharkhand Against Corruption, and Pankaj Yadav. The court directed the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Jharkhand to hand over all documents of the cases to the CBI. The ACB allegedly made a tardy and slow-mo investigation of this case after it lodged an FIR in October 2010 on the basis of the complaint of the General Secretary of the Jharkhand Wrestlers Association Bholanath Singh.
It submitted the first charge sheet in January 2015 against the then sports director PC Mishra and the general secretary of the National Games Organizing Committee, SM Hashmi. The ACB arrested them in October 2014. It also made Jharkhand Olympics Association treasurer Madhukant Pathak an accused. Later on, the ACB booked Bandhu Tirkey (the then sports minister) and RK Anand who is the chairman of the National Olympic Council’s Legal Committee. It further booked another three officebearers of the games organizing committee namely HL Das, Suvimal Mukherjee, and another person.
The 34th national games was originally scheduled in 2007. But the game was finally organized from 12 February to 26 February in 2011. The ACB charged them for siphoning off the public exchequer to the tune of Rs 28.38 crore in the name of procuring equipment.
But the ACB did not investigate a major grey area of the case which was related to the construction of sports complexes. It was widely alleged that a huge amount was embezzled in the name of construction involving several powerful politicians and bureaucrats.
“The court has passed a very clear order that the CBI has to investigate all the cases, including the construction of sports infrastructure. The ACB did not make any headway and it protected corrupt people. The CBI investigation will take the lid off,” said Jharkhand High Court lawyer Rajiv Kumar.
