da bet7： The CBI will soon be summoning WorldTel chief Mark Mascarenhas inthe case of alleged bunglings in the award of telecast rights incollusion with some officials of Doordarshan
25-May-2001The CBI will soon be summoning WorldTel chief Mark Mascarenhas inthe case of alleged bunglings in the award of telecast rights incollusion with some officials of Doordarshan.Mascarenhas, whose prelimnary questioning was done by the CBI’sAnti-Corruption Unit last week, has been summoned to the agency againfor a detailed interrogation, agency sources said in New Delhi on Friday. WorldTeloffices were raided by CBI on November 13 last year for allegedlycausing a loss of several crores of rupees to Prasar Bharti in theaward of telecast rights of Independence Cup in 1997 and ICC KnockOuttournament in 1998.The CBI had registered a case in the telecast rights on November8. The sources said the WorldTel Chief had been summoned again andasked to produce certain documents after which his detailedexamination would proceed.These documents pertain to the telecast of the above twotournaments whose bidding was being investigated by the agency, thesources said. During the preliminary enquiry, CBI had confrontedMascarenhas with some documents seized during the raids. The agencyhas alleged that WorldTel in connivance with certain officials of theInternational Cricket Council had manipulated the bid of these twotournaments causing loss of nearly Rs 25 crore to the Prasar Bharti.CBI in its FIR filed in the designated court had alleged that WorldTelhad conspired with certain senior officials of Doordarshan, StraconIndia, and some officials of ICC and International Cricket CouncilDevelopment Inc. and caused a loss of Rs 21 crore in the telecast ofthe ICC KnockOut tournament played in Kenya.CBI has registered case under section 120-B (Criminal Conspiracy),certain provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act and 420 (cheating).In another case pertaining to telecast of Independence Cup in1997, CBI charged WorldTel, some officials of Doordarshan and UnitedTelevision Network with causing a loss of Rs 3.75 crore to PrasarBharti.CBI has registered a case under criminal conspiracy and Preventionof Corruption Act. CBI is mainly probing the charges of inflatedproduction costs and undue benefit in grant of overseas telecastrights to WorldTel, the sources said.