GCA president orchestrated ticket scam, say police

Sandesh Prabhudesai

The Goa police has finally come to the conclusion that a coterie of three within the Goa Cricket Association, led by its president and former Goa deputy Chief Minister Dayanand Narvekar, conspired with the ticket-printing contractor to sell over 25,000 bogus tickets for the concluding ODI between India and Australia on April 6.

While Narvekar's application for anticipatory bail would be heard on Friday, the police in its 'say' told the Margao District Court that it is the GCA president who managed the whole act by even getting his brother-in-law Eknath Naik appointed as one of the ticket-selling agents.

According to the police, all major decisions for the ODI were taken by a core group of Narvekar, general secretary Vinod Phadke and treasurer Rama Shankardas, who is presently in the police custody.

Investigations over the last 13 days have revealed that the group began by manipulating the tender documents in favour of contractor Chinmay Fallari, for which they were paid Rs 200,000.

Besides printing 27,300 tickets and passes officially, the GCA and the contractor printed over 25,000 more bogus tickets, amounting to around Rs 100 million. The scam came to light only after over 10,000 ticket holders were denied entry to the Nehru stadium, as it was packed to capacity well before the start of the match.

The police have now found out that excess tickets were also printed for the India-Sri Lanka ODI, at the same venue, in 1997, when Narvekar and Shankardas were GCA president and treasurer respectively.

In order to mange the whole conspiracy, the police claim that Narvekar had even changed the GCA constitution, whereby he was vested with the power of even appointing members of the managing committee .

Former State Bank of India chairman P G Kakodkar, who has filed a PIL in the court against the GCA demanding a refund, after he was also beaten up by the police and denied entry for the match, feels the police is not being given a free hand in its investigations. He says, "It is really surprising that the pace of investigations has suddenly slowed down after arresting almost seven people in the first three days."