New Delhi: In a major relief to Asirbad Behera, the Supreme Court has given clean chit to him in a case related to financial irregularities at Barabati stadium and land grab allegations based on the report of Accountant General (AG).
A three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde and comprising Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian has taken on record the report submitted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and accepted the final form for closure of the case.
The apex court’s order came after CBI submitted to the court that “no prosecutable evidence could be gathered during the investigation to prove criminality on the part of then Odisha Olympic Association general secretary Asirbad Behera and M/s Incon Associates or its partners.”
The bench also allowed the CBI to return seized documents to Behera and other parties.
CBI had indicated in its report that the Orissa Olympic Association (OOA) had constructed the shops and let out the same to the interested parties. The report also indicated that the observations of the AG were based on the ‘fair rent’ taken into account which was fixed for a different purpose.
The SC had in April 2017 directed the CBI to conduct investigations into the matter keeping in view the report of the AG pertaining to 23 shops and the Kalyan Mandap.
In his report, the AG had made a comparison of actual rent charged versus fair rent from 1999 to 2014 and indicated that there was differential (apparent loss) of Rs 1, 79, 57, 211.