IOA drops another baton, gets caught in photo-finish

As if it didn’t have enough problems, the Indian Olympic Association is now the subject of a police investigation for its role in a sus...

As if it didn’t have enough problems, the Indian Olympic Association is now the subject of a police investigation for its role in a suspected emigration racket, which came to light through the arrest of five people trying to get to Busan by posing as journalists.

The IOA has said it was not possible for it to scrutinise all requests for accreditation.

The five — Manjeet Singh, Deedar Singh, Bhushan Lal, Surjit Singh and Paramjit Singh, said to be farmers from Jalandhar — had been arrested by the police at Indira Gandhi International Airport on September 24. They had in their possession valid accredition cards — for photographers — issued by the IOA.

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TICKET TO RIDE

Just how easy or tough is it to get a free ticket to an international event? Consider the following:
• Of the 321-strong Indian contingent at Busan almost half were officials: coaches, doctors, managers. Another 100-odd officials from Sports Ministry, SAI, IOA and various federations flew in at different times
• The Indian contingent at the opening ceremony march-past was headed by three junior IOA officials (as reported in The Indian Express): their honorary PRO, clerk and treasurer. Later, chef de mission Jagdish Tytler admitted it was a mistake, ‘‘the athletes should have been in the front row and not these officials’’
• On the other hand, bodybuilder Dinesh Singh Aswal had to move Delhi High Court to board the plane to Busan after federation officials took his passport
• Shuttler Gopichand, the All-England champion, was initially denied a berth on the Indian team — though his name was there in the Busan draw — because officials said his ranking was ‘too low’. — Manish Kumar

They were detained when suspicions were aroused and arrested after they were unable to answer questions put to them by the emigration authorities. The IGIA police then booked them under charges of impersonation, forgery and cheating.

The accredition cards issued to them had allegedly been obtained by Manvendra Nath Shome, editor of a Delhi-based sports magazine Olympia, and his colleague Swapan Karmakar, both subsequently arrested as well. The IOA has said it has known Shome for 20 years.

Though all are now out on bail, DCP (IGIA) Virender Singh says that ‘‘the involvement of the IOA is still a matter of investigation’’.

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Officials say the IOA is being investigated primarily because this body issues the accreditation cards — which, in this case, also acted as a visa to South Korea.

IOA secretary-general Randhir Singh said it was not possible for his body to scrutinise the antecedents of all who had applied for accreditation. ‘‘We clear the forms if it has the approval of the editor concerned — and in this case all the photographers had letters from their editors. So, there was no question of rejecting their applications to cover the Games in Busan.’’

When asked whether the IOA found anything unusual in five photographers applying for accreditation to an event to which even national dailies sent one staffer, or two at the most, Singh said the five had letters from three separate magazines. However, he was unable to name the three.

This isn’t the first time the IOA has had a problem with accreditation. At the Sydney Olympics in 2000, a severe shortage of accreditation forms had sparked an outcry among journalists.

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While Randhir denied that, he did say that subsequently the Indian media had requested the IOA to increase the number of accreditiation forms. ‘‘For the Asian Games in Busan, we acted on their request’’, he said.