Govt. awaits CBI advice
on recent raids

The government will wait for the advice of the Central Bureau of Investigation about its findings following the recent raids on the residential and office premises of three Prasar Bharati officers, before taking any action.

Information and Broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj told newspersons on Friday that three of the six persons whose homes and offices were raided are no longer in Prasar Bharati, while a fourth is already under transfer orders.

While former acting director general K. S. Sarma (then additional secretary in the I and B Ministry) is now an additional secretary in another ministry, both Rakesh Bahadur and Sanjiv Datta are not working in Prasar Bharati.

Dr P. K. Seth had been transferred to the Research and Analysis Wing but has not yet joined, but orders are being issued to relieve him immediately, the minister said. This leaves only deputy director general (Commercial and Sports) K. Kunhikrishna and Anurag Mishra.

The minister said the CBI is yet to reveal what it found during its raids, raids, which were conducted following allegations of scams in telecasts of sports events on Doordarshan.

Financial expert Arun Agarwal, in a report last year, made serious allegations about losses incurred by Doordarshan because of certain deals with regard to the telecast rights of the ICC Knockout tournment in Dhaka in October 1998.

The report revealed that Doordarshan suffered losses running into several crores of rupees from telecasts of several sporting events during 1998-99 either because of some collusion/misappropriation or because of lack of proper planning by Doordarshan officials.

The report related to sports events in 1998-99 and the working of the Sports Consortium, which had been formed when S S Gill was CEO of Prasar Bharati.

UNI