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E-mails Kalmadi relied on were doctored: MEA

Sandeep Dikshit

Given copies of original e-mail when he met Krishna

— PHOTO: V.V. KRISHNAN

PLUGGING THE LEAKS:Workers fix the leaks on the roof of the new Weightlifting Auditorium in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: The embattled Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (CGOC) chief Suresh Kalmadi was confronted with “doctored e-mails” when he met External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna here on Tuesday.

Mr. Kalmadi was provided with copies of the original e-mail from the Indian High Commission in London that did not mention the name of any company. This appears to contradict Mr. Kalmadi's assertion that the CGOC had awarded a contract and made a Rs. 3-crore payment to a company on the basis of the High Commission's recommendations.

Sources said the e-mails relied upon by Mr. Kalmadi were not only “doctored” but they also contained glaring mistakes as a result of additions made to them to show that a junior High Commission official had recommended a company which was promptly given a contract for providing services during the Queen's Baton Relay in London by the CGOC.

AM Films was allegedly paid over £4.50 lakh without going through the tendering procedure and the attendant paper work.

The High Commission also denied recommending any company to the OC and pointed out that a junior official could hardly be authorised to do that.

Sources privy to the meeting between Mr. Krishna and Mr. Kalmadi said the latter was once again categorically told that AM Car, the company in question, was never on the panel of the High Commission. They also found it strange that a fat portion of the contract was in fact given to a subsidiary of this company, AM Films, rather than to the parent company.

They also felt Mr. Kalmadi should produce e-mails from the inbox or sent box of the e-mail account since they cannot be doctored. “The e-mails are all very recent. They should be able to access the inbox or the sent box and produce the original,” they said.

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