DDCA corruption

On 15/12/2015 CBI raided Delhi CM’s office.  It was officially or ostensibly regarding principal secretary Rajendra Kumar.  It was the first time a CM’s office was raided in India.  Arvind Kejriwal tweeted about the raid.  He said Narendra Modi was a coward and psychopath.  Some non-BJP politicians including Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar condemned the raid.  In the evening Kejriwal said CBI wanted DDCA file and the raid was protect Arun Jaitley.

BJP MP Kirti Azad, Bishen Singh Bedi and Sameer Bahadur talked about corruption in DDCA.  Opposition parties demanded Jaitley’s resignation.  AAP held press conferences against Jaitley.  Kejriwal announced Inquiry Commission to look into DDCA misdeeds.  Congress demanded Joint Parliamentary Committee to investigate DDCA.  Bedi said cricket associations in North India are companies and they want to make profit.   Cricket associations in South India are societies.

On 20/12/2015 at 4 p.m. there was a press conference officially by Wikileaks4India and Sun Star newspaper.  Kirti Azad, Bishen Singh Bedi, Surinder Khanna and Sameer Bahadur were present.  There was a video presentation regarding payment to fake companies.  One part showed Kirti Azad arguing with Arun Jaitley about financial manual, bogus members, forged signatures and so on.  Parliament session was going on.  Kirti Azad had 52 questions for Jaitley.  It was embarrassing for BJP because its own MP was accusing its Finance Minister.

On 21/12/2015 Jaitley filed civil and criminal defamation cases.  The civil case was against Kejriwal for 10 crore rupees in Delhi High Court.  The criminal case was against Kejriwal, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Kumar Vishwas, Raghav Chaddha and Deepak Bajpai under sections 499-502 of IPC in the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate.   Ram Jethmalani said he will fight for Kejriwal.  There was a question whether poor AAP can afford Jethmalani’s charge of 22 lakh rupees.  Jethmalani replied he charges in 10% cases and 90% cases he fights free.

There was demand for Jaitley’s resignation in Parliament.  Some said “Caesar’s wife should be above suspicion.”  Jaitley had said the same thing about Manmohan Singh.

On 22/12/2015 at a meeting of BJP parliamentary party Modi said Jaitley is as pure as Advani.  He referred to Advani’s acquittal in Jain Hawala case.  Delhi Legislative Assembly had a session on DDCA.  Kejriwal demanded Modi’s resignation for ordering CBI raid to protect Jaitley.

On 23/12/2015 Parliament session got over and BJP suspended Kirti Azad for anti-party activities.  Azad asked how can fighting against corruption can be anti-party activity.  He had become member of BJP in 1992 when nobody wanted to touch it with a bargepole.  He said he will continue his crusade against corruption in sports and sports bodies.  Subramanian Swamy said he will help Kirti Azad to draft reply to the notice.

There was also talk of Jaitley’s association with Hockey India and his family benefitting from it.  It became known that Jaitley’s daughter Sonali was on two committees of Hockey India and his son-in-law was on two committees.

1. P. S. Gill said Arun Jaitely being an advisor to Hockey India got his daughter appointed to legal committee and Hockey India paid an exorbitant amount to Sonali Jaitley towards retainership fee. The amount is said to be five and half crore rupees.

On 25/12/2015 Kirti Azad wrote to Amit Shah and demanded to know the instances of anti-party activities and proof.

For long Jaitley had defended other BJP members accused of corruption or impropriety.  Now he was at the receiving end.  BJP spokespersons and some BJP leaders defended him.

Jaitley is responsible for the files he signed when he was DDCA president.  The argument that he was not involved in day-to-day affairs and general secretary and treasurer carried out the functions is not good to absolve him of his responsibility.

DDCA was in a mess for a long time.  It was Delhi High Court that saved DDCA from forfeiting Test against South Africa.  Delhi High Court had appointed former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Mukul Mudgal to supervise the functioning of DDCA.  He has been quiet.