PCI prez comes out with a letter alleging financial irregularities

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, april 18

Yet another skeleton has tumbled out of the closet to suggest that corruption was rampant in the suspended Paralympic Committee of India (PCI).

A letter, circulated among the PCI office-bearers by president Rajesh Tomar, has revealed how Rs 35 lakh were siphoned off by the current and former PCI officials at various levels from the funds approved by the Sports Ministry and the Sports Authority of India (SAI) to conduct the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports (IWAS) World Games in Bangalore in November 2009.

The PCI is already grappling with the charges of siphoning off Rs 20 lakh earmarked for the Indian team’s participation in the International Para-Athletic Championships in Kuwait and Malaysia and of embezzling a similar amount of funds during the 2014 Incheon Para Asian Games.

The letter, which was circulated before the suspension of the PCI by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) on Friday, showed how the officials allegedly pocketed lakhs collected from visiting para-athletes of 44 countries and non-payment to five-star hotels and travel companies in Bangalore.

As per the letter written by Tomar, Rathan Singh, PCI’s former secretary general, siphoned off Rs 10.18 lakh, while M Mahadeva, PCI vice-president and secretary general of Para-Athletics Federation, and Satyanarayan, a suspended executive officer, embezzled Rs 6.5 lakh each.

It’s worth mentioning here that Satyanarayan was posted in one of the departments of the Delhi government and later assumed the position of joint secretary in the PCI before getting elevated to the position of secretary general. He also started taking a salary from the PCI. 

Similarly, two women officers – Pushpa Bai and Rekha Sridharan –  allegedly embezzled more than Rs 5 lakh.

The previous regime of the PCI also made Rekha Air Travels and Maxworth Tours and Travels run pillar to post for their outstanding bills amounting to Rs 32 lakh and 20 lakh respectively before the two companies dragged the PCI to the court.

“IWAS Games 2009 came under severe criticism due to poor technical arrangements, mismanagement of funds and siphoning off of money by M Mahadeva, Rathan Singh and Shankar Iyer. Several cases are still being heard in Bangalore courts for non-payment of dues to the hotels. All three even tried to get through the agenda (discussion on previous IWAS Games 2009 and its income and expenditure with court cases thereon) at one of the EC meetings dated June 30, 2014,” Tomar wrote in his letter. “An impress amount of advance payments in their personal names are as on date standing for regularization and all such amount paid was arranged by the office of the treasurer through unsecured loans and advances. Till date, no effort was made to reconcile/recover this amount by PCI treasurer or secretary general,” Tomar further wrote.  

Interestingly, the current Executive Council of the PCI tried to cover up the matter allegedly at the behest of Mahadeva and Rathan during its Executive Committee Meeting in Bangalore on April 4, 2015 which resulted in the suspension of five PCI office-bearers, owing allegiance to secretary general J Chandrashekar, by Tomar and his group. Later, the Executive Council suspended Tomar following complaints of gross mismanagement at the National Para-Athletics Championships in Ghaziabad.

When Chandrashekar was confronted with the letter, he assured of action against the erring officials. “We will summon the concerned office-bearers,” he said.