CWG scandal: CBI cracks open Kalmadi’s locker; grills him some more

Suresh Kalmadi, the tainted chairman of the Commonwealth Games organising committee (OC) was questioned afresh today after the Central Bureau of Investigation opened his bank lockers, which the agency had sealed last month.

"We have opened two bank lockers as part of the investigations. But we do not have any details so far," the official said. 

The two lockers, including one in ICICI Bank, were opened in the presence of Kalmadi's wife, but the CBI declined to name the branches of the banks where the operation took place or what was found from there. 

This is the second time that Kalmadi has been subjected to CBI questioning. He was earlier questioned for several hours on 5 January. Later on 11 March, a five-member CBI team conducted a search of his locker at the Parliament Street branch of UCO Bank in New Delhi. 

The CBI had visited branches of the ICICI and Saraswat banks in Karvenagar, Pune in December 2010, when officials raided Kalmadi's homes and offices in Pune and Delhi. 

Kalmadi, who has been at the centre of the storm ever since the conduct of the Games, received a fresh blow on 11 February, when the CBI arrested Shekhar Mukund Deorukhkar from Pune. Deorukhkar has been accused of hiding facts about transactions and contract papers, which were eventually recovered during the raids conducted by the CBI.

However, the bottom line remains that after five months of investigations and multiple arrests in what should have been an open-and-shut case, the bureau has come up with nothing that can be produced in court as evidence of wrongdoing.