Dalmiya condemns BCCI

Kolkata, Jun 30 (UNI) CAB president Jagmohan Dalmiya today condemned the recent actions of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) as ''high handed'' and ''vindictive'' and warned that ''one cannot remain a silent spectator''.

The BCCI yesterday sent a letter to Dalmiya stating that since he had not issued a reply to the second Show cause Notice dated April 15, 2006, the matter would be refferred to the Disciplinary Committee constituted by the Board.

''The judiciary is still vibrant in this country. If necessary, the appropriate Court of Law would be moved again, '' Dalmiya said.

Dalmiya stated that a number of accusations were made with regard to the Bank Account no 1223 at the Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), Bhowanipore Branch, Kolkata in the Showcause notice, but no supporting document was furnished.

''I wrote to the Board asking for inspection of the documents on the basis of which allegations were made. My authorized representative was asked to go to the BCCI Hony Treasurer's office at Chennai on May 5. The documents were partly shown and partly held back and it was assured that all the documents would be made available to me within a fortnight through the BCCI Hony Secretary.

The minutes of the meeting were duly recorded between my authorized representative and that of BCCI, '' he said.

Dalmiya circulated a copy of the minutes of the meeting in which it was stated that the BCCI represantives had inspected the documents at the Bank on a random basis.

''On the basis of such random inspection of ducuments, the BCCI filed a FIR against me, suspended me from the Board and now they are referring it to the Disciplinary Committee even before giving me the occortunity to inspect the full documents and to answer the charges.

The matter came up twice before the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court and the outcome is well known. This is height of injustice and if necessary, I would seek redress again,'' he said.

The BCCI letter stated that Chitrak Mitra, who attended the BCCI Working Committee meeting on April 9 at Mumbai had assured that details of transactions between CAB and IOB would be furnished within seven days.

''No such time limit was fixed in the meeting and it could well be proved from the draft minutes of the meeting that have been circulated to the affiliated units, '' Mitra said.

Referring to the second letter that the BCCI had issued to CAB conveying the ostensible decision of its Finance Committee that its subsidies and payments were stopped till CAB furnished the accounts and that to debit Rs 40 crore to CAB, Dalmiya said no institution can take such an arbitrary decision.

He stated that CAB had written a letter to BCCI seeking clarifications and details of the accounts. ''BCCI did not provide the clarifications that were required and thus , it was not possible for CAB to furnished the accounts,'' he said.

Former BCCI Hony Joint Secretary Goutam Dasgupta, who attended the Finance Committee meeting on April 28, categorically denied any such decisions being taken.'' There was no discussion or decision in the Finance committee meeting to stop subsides or to debit Rs 40 crore to CAB. It appeared to be the brainwave of a few individuals in the BCCI,'' he said.

Dalmiya, Mitra and Dasgupta were all of the strong opinion that the recent acts of BCCI were nothing but a ''stunt'' in the ensuring CAB elections.

UNI BA SJC DH RS2042