ACB unearths Rs 4 crore fraud in Hyderabad Cricket Association

HYDERABAD: The Anti Corruption Bureau (

ACB

) has charged Arshad Ayub, the president of Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA), its former president G Vinod and seven other leaders of misusing public money to the tune of more than Rs 4 crore and urged a trial court to try and punish them.
The ACB suggested that the officials be tried under the provisions of Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act and the Indian Penal Code.

“Since they were entrusted with funds of

Sports

Authority of AP (SAAP), they fall under the purview of the definition of a public servant and hence can be punished under PC Act,“ M Madhusudan Reddy , deputy superintendent of police, who filed the chargesheet said.

Citing the judgement delivered by the Supreme Court, he told the

ACB Court

there was no need for obtaining sanction from any authority to prosecute the accused. Earlier the court summoned all the accused. On Monday, the eight accu sed officials, most of them current and former office bearers of HCA, Arshad Ayub, G Vinod, DS Chalapathi, present secretary K John Manoj, former secretary Seshadri Venkateswaran, R Devaraj, former treasurer Naresh Sharma and Kishore Kapoor of Delhi-based Star Mercantile Company , appeared before the ACB Court.

Special judge Victor Immanuel recorded their presence and directed them to appear before the court on November 28 again. The summons sent to another accused M V Sridhar, the former vice-president of HCA did not reach him. Hence, the court directed the registry to issue summons to him again. The ACB authorities have told the court that they found no evidence or material against another accused A Yadagiri and urged the court to delete his name from the case.

The ACB, in its chargesheet, said the accused have misused Rs 3.30 crore for the construction of canopy at the north and south stands of Uppal Sports Stadium falls within Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limits. They connived with Delhi-based contractor Kishore Kapoor and caused loss to HCA, the anticorruption body said. The ACB also found fault with HCA officials for acting in a manner that is diametrically opposite to the conditions imposed by the state while leasing out the stadium land to cricket body.

The district collector of Ranga Reddy , while leasing the land to HCA, made it clear that the stadium to be built by HCA should not be used for commercial purposes. But the HCA officials violated this clause and resorted to commercial activities on some parts of stadium, the ACB said in its chargesheet.

According to it, G Vinod, the then president of the association, responded to the allegations of misuse in 2013 and assured the officials that they will not let out any part of the stadium premises for commercial ac tivities. The district collector too ordered a probe by a team of officials, but it never submitted its report.

The ACB officials, however, gave clean chit to the HCA officials in respect of leasing out western stand of the stadium for commercial branding purposes to Bharati Cements.

Bharati Cements got this space on lease for 25 years at a rent of 2.5 crore rupees.