HC Orders Arrest Of 16 HC Officials

A division bench of Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday directed the Director General of the Anti Corruption Bureau to arrest 16 of the 21 accused officials of the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA), in connection with large-scale financial irregularities in the construction of the Uppal Stadium.

The court issued these directions while lifting its earlier stay filed by HCA officials Shivlal Yadav, Arshad Ayub and M V Sridhar.

Earlier, these officials had filed a set of 4 criminal petitions before the High Court, contending that the criminal case filed against them was illegal.

They contended that they are not public servants, and that thus, were outside the purview of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

They also denied the allegations made against them by the ACB in the complaint.

However, the court held that since cricket associations deal with public money and public assets, their members, too, fall under the category of public servants.

The cricket association's vice-president and former Indian test cricketer N Shivlal Yadav is the prime accused in the case. President Arshad Ayub is the second accused.

HCA member C Babu Rao Sagar charged the HCA's executive committee and several contractors of having connived to cause heavy losses to the association's exchequer.

The petitioner alleged that a sum of Rs. 77 crore have been swindled by certain HCA officials in the construction of the cricket stadium at Uppal on the outskirts of Hyderabad, in connivance with NCC. (INN)