Probe into BCCI hiring snooping agency goes cold
NEW DELHI: It’s been a year since the Indian cricket board set up a two-member committee to probe the payment of `6 crore to a London-based investigative and security agency, but the panel not meeting even once has raised doubts whether the sports body is really serious about the investigation.
The payment made to the British agency, PPS had irked many BCCI officials who alleged the N Srinivasan-led administration wanted to keep a tab on their communication channels during a tumultuous phase after the IPL spot-fixing scandal erupted in 2013.
Shivlal Yadav, then a BCCI vice-president, was the interim president when this payment was made in 2014. The former India spinner, who had stepped in after N Srinivasan was directed to step down by the Supreme Court following the 2013 fixing scandal, was seen more as a proxy appointment.
In the AGM in November last year, some officials had raised the issue, and the Board appointed secretary Ajay Shirke and vicepresident Gokaraju Gangaraju of Andhra Pradesh to probe the issue.
A year on, the panel has not even held a meeting.
“After the initial stage when the committee was formed, we have not been able to meet even once to discuss it. Sometimes, when he (Shirke) is available, I am not. When I am available, he is not. But we are looking to soon meet and find a solution. We had asked for the documents from Sanjay Patel (then secretary) and they are with Mr Shirke,” Gangaraju told HT.
Calls to Shirke went unanswered. Patel said the payment wasn’t a big deal. “We hire so many software companies. As far as I know, this PPS was also hired for its software services,” he told HT.
Aditya Verma, secretary of the unaffiliated Cricket Association of Bihar, the man who filed the petition against Srinivasan in the Supreme Court, has alleged in a letter to the Justice RM Lodha Committee and Shirke that the security company could also have snooped on communication between Supreme Court judges and the Lodha panel members.
Verma has claimed the BCCI panel lacks expertise to conduct the probe and wants a government agency to take over investigation.
PANEL NOT MEETING EVEN ONCE HAS RAISED DOUBTS WHETHER THE SPORTS BODY IS
REALLY SERIOUS ABOUT THE INVESTIGATION
NEW DELHI: After presenting his first report on the Justice RM Lodha Committee directives on August 6, former Supreme Court judge, Markandey Katju had promised a final version.
However, the BCCI, which had hired him to counter the Apex Court-appointed panel, has distanced itself with Katju. “BCCI requested me some months back to give advice and submit a report. But after my first report, nobody from the BCCI has been in touch with me,” Justice Katju told HT.
Katju caused a flutter with his sharp comments against the judiciary at a media conference, where he had also declared the Lodha committee ‘unconstitutional’.
“There is a broad separation of powers under the Constitution and each organ of the State, the executive and the judiciary must have respect for the others and must not encroach in each other’s domain,” he had said in his critical report.
BCCI had passed a resolution in August to constitute a one-man commission headed by Justice Katju, who was requested to advise BCCI on the Supreme Court’s July 21 order. It had also authorised him to interact with the Lodha committee though the Supreme Court panel had refused to entertain him.
“I was supposed to submit more reports but I am yet to hear from the BCCI,” he said. The Lodha committee had termed his appointment against the Supreme Court verdict. Some BCCI officials are critical of the manner in which Katju presented its case in the media and feels his report has done more harm than good. “Katju was a wrong choice. I don’t know who took that decision but it was bad advice,” a BCCI official said.
Justice Katju and BCCI secretary Ajay Shirke made the report public in a media conference in Delhi on August 7.