Bindra challenges detractors to notify CBI

The former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Inderjit Singh Bindra on Wednesday refuted the charges levelled against him by the ex-BCCI chief PM Rungta and vice-president Kamal Morarka and asked them to refer the issue to the CBI for a thorough investigation.

Bindra was responding to the allegations by the ex Board officials that had surfaced earlier. On May 14 in a press conference in Mumbai , Rungta had made the allegations against Bindra regarding his fuctioning as the president during his tenure from 1993 till 1996.

Rungta had alleged `` Bindra was the president of the Board then and he needed to be trustworthy. Even now, I don't doubt him, yet he has forced it on me to place before public certain issues." He added ``The financial dealings were not beyond suspicion and only a probe by a high powered committee and the FERA can bring out the extent of financial damage by Bindra.''

According to Rungta he had first raised the issue of Bindra's functioning in the annual general body meeting of the board held in Chennai in 1997. Bindra said that the proceedings of the meeting were video-taped as per the order of Madras High Court and the tape should be forwarded to the CBI to enable them to conduct an independent and thorough investigation.

He stressed ``I have enough material to prove that these charges are not only fallacious but are also totally contrary to the record and facts.''

Earlier in another press conference in New Delhi on May 15, Morarka said``Today Bindra is complaining about masala matches but it was under his tenure as president of the Board that India resumed playing in Sharjah and signed an agreement to play in Toronto, which he now says is useless. For him the right forum to complain is the Board and not the press. This is no way to conduct oneself.''

Bindra claimed that he had records at his disposal to destroy all the allegations. He added that since the allegations have been made publicly, he challenged Rungta and Morarka to send these in writing to the CBI for a thorough probe along with the allegations submitted by the PCA.

Bindra hoped that ``the officials who have raised the issues, have the courage to put them in writing so as to take legal responsibility of the statements they made and subject themselves to legal scrutiny and face the consequences if allegations proved to be false.''

Questioning their motives in raking up the issues in some cases after 13 years and in others between three and four years, Bindra levelled counter allegations against Rungta. He said that Rungta had been involved in numerous scams in the last two decades.

Speaking of Morarka, he said out of a dozen people or so who were present at the press conference called by him only a couple of them made observations and the rest remained silent. He added ``This was more like a puppet show with strings being manipulated by an invisible hand and that explains apparent confusion and incoherence in the statements.''