Dr Akhilesh Das Gupta, the President of Badminton Association of India has come in the line of fire after he and other officials sent their wards to Japan as players for a goodwill trip. Most of them were not qualified.
Gupta has now come under the CBI scanner for alleged fraud and nepotism, reports Times Of India.
The tournament was organised in 2014 by the Japanese government in Tokyo as part of Youth Sports Exchange Programme. According to reports, these 'players' were the children and relatives of officials at BAI and its Delhi unit -Delhi Capital Badminton Association (DCBA).
The Japanese government had paid all the expenses.
ToI reports that most of these 'players' didn't qualify to be sent for the junket.
There was neither any trial conducted nor any advertisement published for inviting eligible badminton players. There was also a selection criteria-- players should be between 17 and 23 years old and should have represented at the regional or state level in their country. Most of these players 'didn't' even meet them.
The probe has revealed that out of the 23 members of the team, seven were wards and close relatives of the office bearers including that of the BAI chief, reports Hindustan Times.
Although the CBI didn't initiate a formal criminal probe in the case, it referred the matter to the sports ministry for further action a few months back.
Gupta told CBI that it was a city exchange programme and BAI had nothing to do with it. "DCBA had selected the youngsters as this programme was between Delhi and Tokyo," he told ToI.
"As far as my daughter is concerned, she went to Tokyo as she was selected by DCBA and I was not part of the selection," he said.
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