Khanna forms committee, Rai disbands it

COA chief Vinod Rai on Monday overruled acting president CK Khanna's decision of forming a committee to investigate the security lapse during a Ranji Trophy game at Palam, saying such a move would have been futile considering it is an Air Force-owned facility.

In a mail to COA and BCCI officer-bearers, Khanna informed them about his decision to form a panel chaired by acting treasurer Aniruddh Chaudhary with Ratnakar Shetty being the convenor. The other members were supposed to be Avishek Dalmiya (CAB) and Jai Shah (Gujarat CA).

Responding to that communication, Rai wrote to the concerned officials including Khanna that the committee was not needed and hence disbanded it.

"I find that the acting President did not get himself briefed by the BCCI administration before deciding to constitute the said committee. There was no consultation with the COA either on this issue," Rai wrote in the mail, a copy of which is in possession of PTI.

"It needs to be appreciated that the Palam ground is an Air Force ground. Security of armed forces premises are managed by the Armed Forces themselves and they will not allow BCCI or any other civilian agency to undertake investigation of either its premises or provide documents.

"Hence, the exercise of 'collecting documents/reports to prepare the details' by Prof. Shetty will be a futile exercise. It will thus unnecessarily cause inconvenience the members of the committee with no tangible benefit emerging from the exercise," Rai wrote further.