Case against Mohd Azharuddin for alleged corruption in Hyderabad Cricket Association

The HCA CEO in the complaint stated that in view of earlier reports submitted by various parties before the Telangana High Court, alleging misappropriation of funds, a Chartered Accountant firm was engaged in August this year to carry out a forensic audit of the association for a period of three years prior to March 1, 2023.

Hyderabad: A case was registered here against former Indian cricket team captain Mohammad Azharuddin and some former office bearers of Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) over allegations of misappropriation of funds of the body, police said on Thursday.

Based on a complaint lodged by Association Chief Executive Officer Suneel Kante Bose, the case was registered at Uppal Police Station here against the former HCA president Azharuddin and other former office bearers under relevant IPC sections and investigation has been taken up, they said.

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Meanwhile, Azharuddin termed the allegations levelled against him as ‘false’ and ‘motivated’ and said he would respond to them at an appropriate time.

“I have seen media reports that have reported that FIR’s have been registered against me on complaints by CEO, HCA. I want to state that these are all false & motivated allegations & I am in no way connected with the allegations. I will reply to the motivated allegations against me at an appropriate time. This is just a stunt pulled by my rivals to ruin my reputation. We shall stay strong and fight harder,” he said on X.

The HCA CEO in the complaint stated that in view of earlier reports submitted by various parties before the Telangana High Court, alleging misappropriation of funds, a Chartered Accountant firm was engaged in August this year to carry out a forensic audit of the association for a period of three years prior to March 1, 2023.

The firm submitted a Forensic Audit (Interim Report) of the Association for the period March 1, 2020 to Februrary 28, 2023 wherein the auditors identified some instances of financial loss that has been caused, involving diversion of funds, misappropriation of assets belonging to HCA and the modus operandi adopted by the parties.

According to the complainant, based on the Forensic Audit (Interim Report), it is evident that certain transactions entered into on behalf of HCA with third party vendors were found to be not genuine and that the transactions were carried out in a manner detrimental to the interest of the Association.
The complainant further said the CA firm made observations with respect to installation of fire-fighting equipment among others in Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium here including the modus operandi of a third-party vendor in collusion with former office bearers.

One of the observations made was “Mohammad Azharuddin, the then President of the Association in the 9th Apex Council meeting held on March 3, 2021 had sought taking up discussions regarding fire-fighting equipment. However, subsequently without assigning any reasons, the tender was not allotted to any of the bidders. Thereafter, HCA had floated a second tender for the same work”, the complainant said.

Based on the audit report, it was alleged that “the then president Mohd Azharuddin attended the meeting virtually and rushed the issue of work order. However, even after six months of issue of work order there is no completion of and non-compliance of statutory regulations persists”.

“All actions right from the issuance of tender for procurement, to allocation of work order and authorizing release of payments to third party vendors without fulfillment of tender conditions were made under the directions of the President who was running the administration under the supervision of the Supervisory Committee without following due procedure,” it added.

The complainant said a detailed probe was required to be done to ascertain the extent of loss to HCA and approached the police.