In a strongly worded letter to members of the SC-appointed supervisory board, Azharuddin accused its chairman of a “conflict of interest”.
Posted on – 10:48 PM, Fri – 25 November 22
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Hyderabad: Former India captain and current Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) chairman Mohammed Azharuddin has accused its chairman Judge (Retd) of Nissanr Ahmed Kakru has a “conflict of interest”.
The Supreme Court returned on August 22 with the establishment of a watchdog led by Kakru (former chief justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court), Telangana DG (ACB) Anjani Kumar, former cricketer Venkatapathy Raju and Vanka Pratap committee. The committee was formed to ensure the smooth running of the HCA’s administrative operations, and there has been internal squabbling among senior members of the committee for years.
However, Azaruddin claimed in a letter to the committee that Kakru was “promoting and supporting the cause of opposition group members”. Al-Azhar’s opposition includes his longtime opponents and former Indian deputy Shivlal Yadav and Arshad Ayub, as well as Shesh Narayan and Adnan Mahmood.
“First of all, I have reservations about the appointment of Judicial (retired) NA Kakru as Chairman of the Supervisory Board and his selection of the committee,” Azhar wrote in the letter to the committee, claiming a ‘conflict of interest’. “… …. Justice (Retd) NA Kakru was backed by the opposition as an alternate candidate for the Ombudsman at the HCA AGM on April 7, 2021. This comes after the appointment of Justice Deepak Verma has been made and upheld Later by Telangana Hon’ble High Court in CRP 117/2021. “At that time Judge Kakru presumably agreed with his appointment in HCA and his appointment as Ombudsman, found in the minutes of the AGM meeting distributed by the Opposition Mentioned, this is the subject of OP 262/2021 and is pending trial.
“In this context, the appointment of Judge NA Kakru to the HCA Supervisory Board is, in the eyes of any ordinary person, a conflict of interest.” For Azhar, his main objection was that Kakru supported Shivral and Ayu Published a “sinister agenda” in which they were allegedly promoting “fraudulent memberships”.
“Furthermore, as far as I understand, Judge (retired) NA Kakru is promoting and supporting the cause of the opposition group consisting of Adnan Mahmood, Shivlal Yadav, Arshad Ayub, Seshnarayan in promoting his candidacy for appointment as Ombudsman and Facilitating their sinister agenda of pushing fraudulent members under the rug, rushing to declare my term over and holding elections with fraudulent electoral rolls.”
Azhar further accused rival factions of trying to stop him from cleaning up the mess surrounding HCA cricket.
“There was no order at the end of my tenure as HCA President. I had filed complaints against HCA about fraudulent memberships and these complaints have been ongoing since the past 20 years. I only found out about this fraud after I took over as President in 2019 depth.
“I did my best to clean up the fraud through the Ombudsman, but unfortunately politics prevailed over my quest for a clean structure in the association which allowed me to become an international cricketer. Due to the investigation by the Ombudsman HCA no happens, I would prefer to ask the same question to the supervisory board,” he wrote.
Azhar wrote that committee members should investigate Kakru’s alleged conflict of interest. “In order to ensure that the supervisory board can carry out its work in a fair manner, I humbly request the supervisory board to record the justifiable conflict of interest (Retd) na Kakru as a member of the supervisory board may initiate the committee and appropriate action to resolve the conflict,” Azhar said.
