BCCI swindled of Rs 50 crores in fraud land deal

BCCI in hot soup over dubious land deal

India’s richest sports governing body, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was conned Rs 50 crores in a dubious land deal and is now in the process of initiating criminal proceedings against those involved in the racket, revealed the National Cricket Academy (NCA) on Thursday.

At a meeting of the sub-committee of the National Cricket Academy on Thursday, members were briefed about one Gurudutt Shanbagh, who happens to be neither an employee of the BCCI nor is related to any state organisation, and who signed documents on behalf of the board with the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) for acquiring 49 acres of land in a place named Kurki near the Bangalore airport.

The BCCI apparently paid Rs. 46.135 crore to secure the deal back in 2010, but are now in for a rude shock to notice the number of Public Interest Litigations (PILs) that were filed in the Karnataka High Court, after paying nearly Rs. 50 crores (Rs 49,97,60,000).

The Karnataka High Court delivered its verdict on June 20, declaring the land deal illegal. This was when the BCCI bosses realised they were duped. Since then, Shanbagh has been absconding and till date remains untraceable, while the role played by former administration manager AK Jha has also come under the scanner.

It has come to notice, however, that game development manager Ratnakar Shetty got a recorded statement from Jha, who has now been sacked from the BCCI, where he has admitted that “Shanbagh had co-ordinated voluntarily on behalf of BCCI”.

A BCCI office-bearer was quoted by NDTV SPORTS as saying: “When we questioned as to how Shanbagh entered into the picture, we were told that no one knows his background as he was regularly seen sitting at Jha’s office.”

Earlier in 2008, BCCI had earnestly paid Rs 3.841 crore for 32 acres of land to the Karnataka government, for establishing NCA facilities at Bidadi, about 15 kilometres from Bangalore. However, the deal was revoked citing logistical difficulties, as the airport was too far away from the contemplated site.