Decks cleared for registering case in Television rights
Decks have been cleared for the CBI to file another case in a cricket-related scandal -- this time to probe alleged bunglings by Doordarshan in allotment of rights to telecast matches, CBI sources said on Sunday.
They said some documents were being examined by the Anti-Corruption Unit of the CBI and a preliminary enquiry (PE) or a regular case (FIR) would be registered very soon to probe the allegations.
The final go-ahead in the case has been given by the legal cell of the agency, the sources said.
The Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) of the agency, which did some preliminary investigation into the allotment rights, has gathered some evidence, the sources said.
According to the sources, the CBI has alleged that the national network of the country sold the television rights to private firms despite having all facilities to do the work themselves.
They said several files pertaining to telecast rights of 1996 and 1999 cricket World Cups of Doordarshan had been scrutinised by the agency and the ACU has opined that a case could be registered and a formal inquiry initiated.
While 1996 cricket World Cup was jointly hosted by India,Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the 1999 world cup was hosted by England.
CBI sources said the investigations would mainly deal with two issues -- allotment of television rights from 1996 onwards and if any money has been made by middlemen, event managers and other officials from these rights.
CBI would go into the details of allotment of television rights and find whether any bunglings had been committed or a particular firm had been favoured, the sources said.
The move follows former president of Indian Cricket Board S Bindra submitting a personal report on May 15 to the CBI about the allotment of TV rights of cricket matches.
Bindra's report generally dealt with three issues --
1.
allotment of television rights from 1996 onwards,
2. money made by middlemen, event managers and other officials from these rights and
3.
playing of cricket in other countries.
The report, which was examined by the legal cell of the agency, said middlemen benefitted from the telecast of these matches.
CBI will also probe the alleged bunglings in the telecast rights of cricket matches being played in off-shore venues like Toronto (Canada), Singapore, Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Sharjah (UAE).
Mail Cricket Editor
