HC asks DGP to seize ACA accounts

‘No transparency has been maintained regarding the funds sanctioned and spent while constructing the stadium. The present executive committee, which is functioning since 2002, has not held its annual meeting for the last four years nor submitted the accounts’

CROOKED FIGURES

Expenditure (2007-14)

*     Air fare - 8.5 crore

*    catering/ food - 14.20 crore

*    Tent house - Rs 2.5 crore

*    Cricket ball - Rs 70 lakh

*    Travel - Rs 4.90 crore

Shady balance sheet of 2014 AGM at Silchar

*     Same person went by both flight and car to attend the meeting!

*     Hotel tariff in the accounts inflated by more than four times the actual rate

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, July 24: The Gauhati High Court today directed the State's Director General of Police to seize the account books and papers of the Assam Cricket Association (ACA) within 48 hours.

Admitting a PIL filed by former sports organizer Sahajanda Ojha regarding various fincial and organizatiol irregularities in the cricket body, a division bench of the court comprising Justice T Vaiphei and PK Saikia also issued notices to State Home department, Revenue department and BCCI besides the ACA.

"The court has directed the DGP to seize the account books and papers of the ACA for the last ten years. The documents should be kept in police custody till further directions," the petitioner's counsel Debojit Saikia said.

In his petition, Ojha sought a CBI inquiry into the alleged irregularities in the ACA.

Ojha stated in his petition that the Assam government had doted a land of 59 bighas for constructing a stadium at Borsapara on the outskirts of the city. "The State government had also given a grant of Rs 1.40 crore. Grants were sanctioned by the BCCI as well. But fourteen years after the work started, the stadium is yet to be completed," he said.

Ojha also pointed out that during the governing body meeting of the ACA on June 5 last, it was proposed that the stadium would be handed over to a trust which will also have the power to sell it.

"No transparency has been maintained regarding the funds sanctioned and spent while constructing the stadium. The present executive committee, which is functioning since 2002, has not held its annual meeting for the last four years nor submitted the accounts," Saikia quoted the PIL as stating.