Frame charges against nine in CWG graft case: Delhi court

New Delhi: A court here on Monday ordered that charges be framed against six former Commonwealth Games (CWG) Organising Committee members and three others in a corruption case related to merchandise and sportswear.

Special Judge Arvind Kumar ordered formal charges be framed against the then CWG Organising Committee members VK Verma, Surjeet Lal, KUK Reddy, M Jayachandran, Ram Mohan, and Sangeeta Welinkar, besides Suresh Kumar and two private firms - Premier Brands Private Ltd. (PBPL) and its parent company Compact Disc India Ltd.

The court found prima facie evidence of criminal conspiracy, cheating, and violations of the Prevention of Corruption Act against the accused.

The charges will be formally framed on August 16.

The Central Bureau of Investigation had chargesheeted the accused persons for allegedly extending undue favours to appoint PBPL as the master licensee for merchandising, online and retail, for the games.

The committee had fixed a minimum royalty of Rs 7.05 crore. 

The CBI alleged that after scrapping the earlier bid on flimsy grounds, the evaluation committee dishonestly considered PBPL on the basis of goodwill of its parent company and handed over the company master licence for merchandising on an offer of Rs 5.2 crore.

The agency said that PBPL used the CWG brand and earned a huge profit, but did not pay anything to the Organising Committee. The accused officials thus caused huge pecuniary advantage to PBPL and consequent loss to the exchequer, it added.