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The Commonwealth Games scam in the year 2010 in New Delhi is one of the most well known scam of India whose main accused being Suresh Kalmadi, the chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Commonwealth Games. The Commonwealth scam involves a pilferage of about nearly Rs 70,000 crores. A number of corrupt deals have happened in the CWG including overstated contracts. Even before the grand event was in the lime light it was exposed to more of proclamation of dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power. It is estimated that out of Rs. 70000 crores spent on the Games, only half the said amount was spent on Indian sportspersons. Reports based on investigation states that Suresh Kalmadi gave nearly Rs 141 crores contract to Swiss Timing for its timing equipment and the deal was excessively or unreasonably high by Rs 95 crores.


Just 10 days before the Commonwealth games was about to start the athletes were made to shift from the apartments which were exclusively meant for them. They were moved on to very shabby and run down apartments. The Central Vigilance Commission, which was investigating the professed dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power in various Commonwealth Games related projects, had found lack of compatibility in tenders like payment to non-existent parties, will-full delays in execution of contracts, over-inflated price and bungling in purchase of equipment through tendering and misappropriation of funds.

There is a big list of people including Politicians, Bureaucrats, and Businessmen who were involved in the Commonwealth scam. Apart from the people there was also a number of major corporations who played a role in the Commonwealth scam. Some of the top politicians who were involved in the scam are Suresh Kalmadi who acclaims to be the main accused. He was the representative of the Congress party to the 15th Lok Sabha from the Pune constituency. He was the Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Delhi Commonwealth games. According to the reports submitted by the Shunglu committee and from the office of Comptroller and Auditor General, the then Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit was also charged with a number of evidence of fraud and irregularities related to the Commonwealth Games process. The other main political head who was involved in the scam was Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of Congress President, Ms. Sonia Gandhi.

The bureaucrats whose names were listed in the Commonwealth scam are Lalit Bhanot, Secretary General of the Organizing committee, TS Darbari, Joint Director General of the Organizing committee, Sanjay Mahindroo, Deputy Director General of the Organizing committee, BS Lalli, CEO of Prasar Bharati and M Jayachandran, Joint Director General of Accounts and Finance Department. Apart from the personal involvement of people in the scam there were also a number of Organizations or Corporations who were involved in the scam and they are AM Films, AM Cars, SIS Live, MTNL, HCL Info systems, Sweka Powerteck Engineers Pvt Ltd. Jaypee group was another major organization which was claimed to have the proceeds of corruption which are parked here through financial involvement of Suresh Kalmadi's son, Sumeer Kalmadi in the F1 circuit project at Greater Noida. Among the list of the businessmen who also played a role in the Commonwealth games are RSP Sinha, MTNL CMD, and SM Talwar who was the Executive director of MTNL, NK Jain, and General Manager of MTNL in the department of Corporate Sales and finally Jitendra Garg, the Deputy General Manager of MTNL.

The best part of the scam was that it was scooped out by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India even before the Commonwealth games was started. Suresh Kamahi did lot of action of manipulation in a clever and unscrupulous way by his team and supposed to have unfairly taken a huge amount of money in the name of Commonwealth games. Kalmadi had been accused of awarding illegal contracts to a Swiss firm for Timing-Scoring-Result system for the Games causing a loss of Rs 95 crores to the exchequer. It has been reported by the Enforcement Directorate that during the Queens Baton Relay held in London prior to the Commonwealth Games lot of funds and forex had come in and has been misappropriated by Suresh Kalmadi and his team. This has been probed under the grounds of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act which falls under the overlays-related works of the Games, under the Foreign Exchange Management Act.

the Enforcement Directorate also filed charge sheets against Suresh Kalmadi based on the British Authorities who reported to the Indian High Commission that the team headed by Suresh Kalamdi hired a London-based transport firm AM Cars and Vans at exorbitant prices. There are also reports submitted which state that just like heavy payments given to AM cars, unreasonably high payments were made to AM Films for installing video screens at the venue of the Queen's Baton Relay. Another case regarding the Commonwealth Games scam is also registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation against the officials of Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Limited, or MTNL, and a Noida based company named HCL Infosystems for setting up a broadcast network for the games at an extremely high price of about nearly Rs 400 crores. The probne into the Commonwealth scam also claims that MTNL assigned the work of broadcast network based on IP/MPLS Technology at an inflated price of approximately Rs 570.12 crores by manipulating specifications in such a manner as to make them tailor made for the said bidder to the said private company (HCL).

Various reports submitted by the different committees investigating the Commonwealth scam all clearly stated that there were several complaints based on the violation of norms in the process of recruiting officers for the Commonwealth games. The Central Vigilance Commission claims that rules were not followed in the process of appointments. The CVC also stated that the muster rolls shows names of non- existing employee names thereby violating norms while inducting people. Also the Central Bureau of Investigation stated that during the period of 2003- 2009 various appointments were made for the Organizing Committee who had no expertise for their concerned posting. The Games' organizing body had an overall strength of about 2,100 officials engaged for various duties related to the mega sporting event. But during the probe, there were only about 100 officials on the rolls.The Organizing Committee of the Commonwealth games was questioned by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India for the deals which had been signed with media channels. The contract which was signed for this was about Rs. 6.73 crores.

Disclaimer: This web page explains the scams that occurred in India. The information are collected from the media reports. www.indianmirror.com or it owners do not take any responsibility for the authenticity of the contents. Since some cases are in the court of law, we do not endorse any cases or do not conclude on the same. If you need any changes to be done on the above information, kindly contact us with valid proof. However sincere attempt is being made to create awareness in the society against this evil and to prepare the younger generation for a corruption free India.