Swiss Timing charged in CWG corruption case

Sports timing company Swiss Timing has been charged by Indian police over alleged kickbacks contained in a contract it won for the Delhi Commonwealth Games, a police statement said.
The Swiss group, which has been timekeeper at a host of Olympics Games, most recently in Beijing in 2008, has been named in the latest charges in a wide-ranging police probe into the graft-tainted October event in New Delhi.

Two high-ranking officials, the closest aides to the unpopular chairman of the event Suresh Kalmadi, have also been charged with criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption, the statement issued late Tuesday said.

Police said Swiss Timing had supplied equipment "at exorbitant rates of one 1.07 billion rupees (220,000 dollars) and thereby causing huge loss to the government," it said.

The accused men, organising committee secretary general Lalit Bhanot and director general V.K. Verma, are alleged to have twisted bidding criteria to eliminate other bidders and award the contract to Swiss Timing.

They "entered into criminal conspiracy with a Switzerland-based company," named as Swiss Timing in the police statement.

"We seized huge amounts of incriminating documents from their residences and we are certain more details of corruption will emerge soon," a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) source told AFP on Wednesday on condition he was not identified.

Swiss Timing was responsible for timing events at stadiums at the Delhi Commonwealth Games.

It has a long history of working on major sporting events stretching back to 1972. Among other major events, it was the official time-keeper at the Atlanta, Sydney, Athens and Beijing Olympics.

The Games under-fire chairman Suresh Kalmadi, a senior member of India's ruling Congress party, has not yet been quizzed by the CBI, the source added.

Both Verma and Bhanot denied any wrongdoing after detectives searched their homes on Tuesday.

The Delhi Games were hit by claims of massive financial irregularities as the budget ballooned to an estimated six billion dollars.

Last week, police arrested the sacked treasurer of the organising committee, M. Jayachandran on charges of forgery and cheating over the awarding of Games-related contracts.

Police have also charged two other former Games officials.