CWG scam: ED attaches Rs 11.28 crore assets of Hyderabad firm

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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday attached Rs 11.28 crore assets of Hyderabad-based AKR Construction Ltd against whom a money laundering case in 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG) related corruption case is underway. The agency provisionally attached the immovable property of AKR Construction at Banjara Hills in Hyderabad worth Rs 59,875,000 and its amounts in bank accounts worth Rs 52,961,412 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, an ED official said.

The ED had registered a money laundering case against Swiss Timing Ltd and others under the PMLA based on FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in which it has mentioned charges of criminal breach of trust, cheating under Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act, which entails life imprisonment as maximum punishment."For the installation of Timing, Scoring and Resulting (TSR) System, the officials of Organising Committee of Commonwealth Games 2010 conspired with private persons and abuse their official positions for awarding the tender to Swiss Timing by manipulating the tender process causing loss of Rs 956,064,729 to the exchequer," an ED statement said.

The agency's investigation also revealed that Swiss Timing entered into a fraudulent contract with Faridabad-based Gem International which in turn awarded subcontract to the AKR Construction Ltd and paid about Rs 11.28 crore. The AKR Construction, under the control of A. K. Reddy, raised fake bills against labour contract, supply of cables and more and siphoned the amount of the proceeds of crime thus involved in money laundering, said an ED investigator. Sacked CWG Organising Committee (OC) Chairman Suresh Kalmadi and nine others are facing trial in a corruption case relating to the mega sporting event.

The committee's former Secretary General Lalit Bhanot, former Director General V.K. Verma, former Director General (Procurement) Surjit Lal, former Joint Director General (Sports) A.S.V. Prasad and former Treasurer M. Jayachandran are the other accused. They are no longer associated with the sporting body. It is also alleged that Kalmadi and other accused rejected Spanish firm MSL's much lower bid of Rs 62 crore to award the contract to Swiss Timing.

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