CWG scam: Kalmadi's locker searched by CBI

The CBI Friday searched a frozen bank locker of sacked Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi here in connection with alleged irregularities in the conduct of the sporting extravaganza.

The teams of CBI officials also opened lockers of NDMC and CPWD officials which were frozen during the searches conducted yesterday, official sources said.

The officials reached the UCO bank at Parliament Street here in afternoon and opened the locker in the presence of Kalmadi's wife and daughter. The locker was sealed during searches conducted in December last year, official sources said.

The CBI had carried out searches in December last at the residential premises of Kalmadi in the national capital and in Pune in connection with its probe into alleged irregularities in the conduct of the Games and frozen several lockers in two cities.

Besides Kalmadi, the premises of his personal secretary Manoj Bhure in Pune were also searched by the CBI. Kalmadi's farm house at Khadakwasla near Pune and the "Sai Service" petrol station owned by him in Pune were among his properties searched in December.

Earlier this month, the agency had searched the lockers at banks in Pune in this regard, they said.

The CBI has also questioned the sports czar once for nearly eight hours in connection with the alleged scams.

Several of Kalmadi's top aides including former Secretary General Lalit Bhanot and VK Verma, Director General in the Organising Committee, have been arrested in the last few months for alleged financial irregularities in various cases pertaining to the sporting event.

Shekhar Deorukhkar, personal assistant of the Congress MP, was also arrested by the CBI in February in connection with the overlays scam.