Thaindian News

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS) Indian Olympic Association (IOA) vice-president Tarlochan Singh said Thursday that Suresh Kalmadi was welcome to re-join the sports organisation as its president again.

“People have faith in Kalmadi. It is up to him if he wants to return as president. No one has complained against Kalmadi in the General Body Meeting,” Tarlochan told reporters here after Kalmadi was granted bail by the Delhi High Court.

Kalmadi was the IOA president when he was arrested last year on charges of corruption in the Commonwealth Games. Senior vice-president Vijay Kumar Malhotra took over as the interim president after Kalmadi was arrested.

According to the IOA constitution, Kalmadi can resume the charge of the organisation as he never resigned nor was he removed by the general body meeting.

“He (Kalmadi) has already spent nine months in jail. This is also a good lesson for the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) and it has proved that there is no strong case against him. The bail also proves that CBI has found nothing against him,” said Tarlochan.

Tarlochan hailed Kalmadi’s contribution as the chairman of the Commonwealth Games organising committee.

“The Commonwealth Games was a huge success and Kalmadi has done a lot of good work as IOA president and was responsible for bringing the CWG to India. I don’t think there will be any objection if he wants to take over as the IOA president again,” he said.

Kalmadi, former Commonwealth Games organising committee chief, and former director general V.K.Verma were granted bail by the Delhi High Court after they cooled their heels in the Tihar Jail for nine months. Kalmadi and Verma along with nine other officials have been accused of corruption in a case related with the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Kalmadi and Verma were arrested for their alleged role in awarding a contract for installing the Timing-Scoring-Result system to Swiss Times Omega at an exorbitant cost of Rs.141 crore, that caused the public exchequer a loss of over Rs.95 crore.