Former India captain and ex-Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) chief Mohammed Azharuddin has clarified the FIR filed against him by the Hyderabad police alleging that he misused the funds from the organization.
The case was registered at Uppal Police Station in Hyderabad against the former HCA president Azharuddin and other former office bearers based on a complaint lodged by Association Chief Executive Officer Suneel Kante Bose.
The HCA CEO in the complaint stated that given 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 before March 1, 2023.
The firm submitted a Forensic Audit (Interim Report) of the Association for the period March 1, 2020, to February 28, 2023, wherein the auditors identified some instances of financial loss that have been caused, involving diversion of funds, misappropriation of assets belonging to HCA and the modus operandi adopted by the parties.
The forensic audit revealed financial loss, diversion of funds, and misappropriation of assets funds belonging to HCA, following which HCA CEO Suneel Kante Bose lodged a complaint and four cases were registered.
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 to take 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 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 the allocation of the work order and authorizing the 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.
On the other hand, Mohammed Azharuddin refuted all charges and clarified on social media.
He posted on X: “I have seen media reports that have reported that FIRs 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.”
