Games probe panel indicts Prasar Bharti, DD ex-chiefs

In the first of a series of reports, the two-man committee appointed by the prime minister to investigate alleged irregularities in the organisation of the Delhi Commonwealth Games has recommended that criminal cases be registered against former Prasar Bharati chief executive B S Lalli and Doordarshan director general Aruna Sharma for causing an estimated Rs150-crore loss to the exchequer in granting CWG broadcasting rights to UK-based SIS Live.

Lalli was suspended as chief executive of the state-run broadcaster on 21 December.

The committee headed by former Comptroller and Auditor General V K Shunglu submitted the report to the prime minister's office and cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar on Saturday. It is expected to be put up on an official website this evening.

Shunglu reportedly said, ''The broadcast deal was a stand-alone subject and sometimes there are problems in holding back information for too long.''

Running into nearly 1,000 pages with annexures - the report itself is 55 pages - the committee is said to have indicted the two bureaucrats for granting rights to SIS Live for Rs246 crore, saying that the actual cost of coverage was only Rs111 crore. Shunglu has recommended that the duo be charged under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and that disciplinary action be taken.

The Shunglu panel is learnt to have found glaring irregularities in the deal Doordarshan signed with UK-based SIS live. The panel earlier took into possession hard discs from the official computers of Lalli and Sharma.