DDCA audit likely to weaken defamation lawsuit of Jaitely against Kejriwal

New Delhi: The audit of Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) finance can possibly weaken the defamation case against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, which was filed by Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley.

On the orders of the Delhi High Court, the audit has registered financial embezzlement of several crore rupees in the DDCA between 2012-2015 by Chartered Accountancy firm based in Delhi.

Jaitley was DDCA president from 1999 to December 2013, who had filed a lawsuit against Kejriwal and his five colleagues for Rs 10 crores, under civil and criminal defamation.

However, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders accused Jaitley of the irregular financial transaction in DDCA. The case is pending in a trial court.

The financial misappropriation:

As per the report, there was an embezzlement in the purchase of tickets worth Rs 2.31 crore. DDCA purchased the tickets for ‘distribution to government officials’. It spent Rs 1.76 crore on purchase of tickets ‘on credit’. However, another sum of Rs 11.42 lakh was spent on the purchase of tickets ‘through cheque’.

An ‘unauthorised’ amount of Rs 65.74 lakh was paid to staff for the purchase of ticket, conveyance and lunch during the matches. Along with that, a surplus entertainment tax of Rs 2.78 crore was wasted because DDCA did not claim a refund of unsold and surrendered tickets.

The Association suffered a loss of Rs 83.05 lakh as a result of mishandling of a property tax case.

To add more to mishandling of cash:

DDCA, in January 2014, issued unauthorised loan worth Rs 1.56 crore, to three private parties, namely: Maple Infrareality Pvt Ltd, Shri Ram Tradecom Pvt Ltd and Vidhan Infrastructure Pvt Ltd. This was done to defraud the DDCA, the report says.

Another payment of Rs 7.70 lakh was made for the same work, which was not accomplished. Furthermore, bills worth Rs 42.04 lakh were paid without certification by the Civil Engineer.

Another ‘dubious payment’ of Rs 33.71 lakh, was made to a different company on a single day for same work without any approval.

Auditors also detected ‘suspected transactions’ to different contractors, vendors and suppliers for Rs 2.84 lakh which were not verifiable besides unverifiable travelling expenses of the director worth Rs 4.28 lakh.

A questionnaire was sent to finance minister Arun Jaitley’s office at the time of filing this report, but there is no reply as for now.

Source of information: The Quint