Anil Khanna resigned from the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (OC) as treasurer on Thursday “ to maintain the dignity of his family”. On a day of dramatic developments, when Khanna should actually have been attending the CWG executive board meeting, he decided to quit after two newspapers raised doubts over his son Aditya Khanna’s involvement in the tennis project in the Capital.
“ There’s something fishy and deliberate in documents being leaked just a day before such an important meeting of the OC,” Khanna said. “ The truth is that my son is not involved in Rebound Ace getting the contract to lay tennis courts in the Capital. The company that won the bid — conducted by the DDA — on a lowest- tender basis was Rebound Ace of Australia,” Khanna clarified.
The two dailies had reported that there was a conflict of interest in the deal because the Indian distributors of Rebound Ace were Rebound Ace India Private Limited, whose Indian branch is headed by Khanna’s son.
Insiders told M AIL T ODAY that “ Khanna had serious differences with the OC on several key issues”. Having been forced to take up the treasurer’s job in January after A. K. Mattoo had abruptly quit, Khanna felt the OC was not working in a proper manner.
It is no secret that on Wednesday Khanna had a long meeting with OC secretary general Lalit Bhanot and vice- chairman Randhir Singh. While no one was willing to come on record as to why the meeting stretched up to three hours, it is reliably learnt that Khanna had raised the issue of T. S. Darbari and Sanjay Mohindroo’s roles in the Queen’s Baton Relay in London last October. And he ‘ got fixed’ for it the next morning. “ For over two months, I was contemplating quitting the treasurer’s post. I did not quit today because my son is involved, but I quit because I am hurt by the allegations made against me and the manner in which it was done through the media,” Khanna said.
“ I never took a single rupee as salary from the OC, and I also made it clear that I would not sign cheques. I had made it amply evident that my job was in an advisory capacity, and I was not there to get involved on a daily basis,” Khanna said. In Khanna’s view, the OC is like an MNC where the amount of money involved is so huge that professionals are needed to manage it. “ I tried to do my job as treasurer in the best possible way.
Even today I told my secretary to pass on audited papers to the executive board,” Khanna added, who informed Suresh Kalmadi that he was quitting.
“ I wish to set the record straight now. Just because Aditya Khanna’s father is a tennis administrator does not mean he cannot be involved in the business of tennis. There are other officials in the All India Tennis Association who had already given in writing to the body that they were involved in the business of laying tennis courts,” he said.
M AIL T ODAY accessed the tender papers of three companies which were involved in the bidding process conducted by the DDA. They were Deco Turf from Massachusetts, US, Plexipave from Massachusetts, US and Rebound Ace from Queensland, Australia.
“ Rebound Ace was the cheapest and the total cost for the 14 courts was Rs.119 lakh.
This works out to roughly Rs.8.5 lakh per court.
Other bids were for a much higher price and, in fact, the government has now saved over Rs. 50 lakh in the project,” Khanna said, adding: “ There is no financial impropriety in it and this is not like the overlay rentals for treadmills,” said Khanna.
When asked about the quality of Rebound Ace, since some Indian tennis players had rubbished it, Khanna said: “ People should not forget that the same surface was used at the Doha Asian Games where India did so well. Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi won the doubles medal and Leander teamed with Sania Mirza to win the mixed doubles medal as well.“ Rebound Ace is in the list of the International Tennis Federation and they will come to certify the courts installed in New Delhi. Only after that will their final payment be released,” said Khanna.
The bigger surprise was how the OC wasted little time in accepting Khanna’s resignation and made Mattoo as treasurer again.
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