VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, April 11: The Jharkhand High Court on Monday handed over the Jharkhand National Games scam to the CBI and directed the agency to investigate the role of police officials who kept investigations of the cases pending for the last 12 years.
A Division bench of 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 of Jharkhand to hand over all documents of the cases to the CBI including the construction of the sports complex. The court directed the CBI to inform the court if any department or official doesn’t cooperate with the agency in the investigation.
The matter is related to the 34th National Games which was held in February 2011. The 34th national games was originally scheduled in 2007. But the game was finally organized from 12 February to 26 February in 2011.
General secretary of the Jharkhand Wrestlers Association Bholanath Singh had lodged a complaint at Jharkhand Vigilance Bureau (renamed as Jharkhand Anti-Corruption Bureau) that a wide corruption was done in organizing games. The Vigilance Bureau lodged an FIR 49/2010 and during the course of the investigation, it filed two charge sheets. The Vigilance Bureau claimed that Rs 28.38 crore were embezzled in the name of organizing games. But the vigilance bureau carried out a skin-deep investigation and caught small fries. It did not investigate embezzlement in the procurements of equipment and construction of sports infrastructures.
“The Vigilance Bureau investigated the case on the pick and choose basis. The role of many officials was not investigated. There was huge corruption in the construction of the sports complex. the role of sports director Anurag Gupta was not investigated. The vigilance bureau made contradictory statements,” said Jharkhand High Court lawyer Rajiv Kumar.
