The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday filed a chargesheet for alleged financial irregularities in the conduct of the Queen’s Baton Relay (QBR) of the Commonwealth Games and named sacked OC chairman Suresh Kalmadi for violations under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema). The complaint (equivalent of a chargesheet) was filed by the agency to its adjudicating authority here and alleges foreign exchange contraventions to the tune of about `5 crores in the conduct of the Queens Baton Relay (QBR) held in 2009 in London.

The ED also named five OC officials apart from Mr Kalmadi in its complaint — former secretary general Lalit Bhanot, director general V.K. Verma, deputy director general Sanjay Mahindroo, joint director general (accounts and finance) M. Jaychandran and A.K. Mattoo. According to agency’s complaint, Mr Kalmadi was named for providing his signatures in his “individual capacity” and allowing “unauthorised payments” of more than `8 crores and few others for the conduct
of the QBR and also side-stepping five other service providers in favour of a firm — AM Films and Cars limited. The ED complaint also mentions how the OC violated its own charter for the event and hired luxury vehicles like Mercedes S-class, BMW-7 series thereby violating the authorisation for hiring only “mid-size” cars for ferrying guests, athletes and other dignitaries. The ED however has not found any evidence against T.S. Darbari, Mr Kalmadi’s former close aide in the OC whose services were terminated by the former OC chairman.
The ED probe , meanwhile, revealed that the luxury cars used for the QBR had clocked exorbitant miles during the time they were hired and the bills that were furnished in lieu of these services were not cleared by “authorised signatories”.