Kalmadi duped... almost

Updated On: 03 March, 2010 08:47 AM IST | | Shashank Shekhar

Congress leader Janardan Dwivedi's impersonator manages six passes for Hockey World Cup match by calling IOA chief's office, arrested

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Congress leader Janardan Dwivedi's impersonator manages six passes for Hockey World Cup match by calling IOA chief's office, arrested

The Indian Olympics Association (IOA) office at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi is no stranger to calls from the who's who of the city.
February 28 was no exception.

Indian Olympics Association (IOA) chief Suresh Kalmadi with captains
of India and Pakistan hockey teams at India Gate

At around 12 noon, association president Suresh Kalmadi's office received a call from senior Congress leader and spokesperson Janardan Dwivedi.

Dwivedi asked for Kalmadi. The call was reportedly transferred to the IOA chief, who was asked for six passes

Big C is watching

The International Cricket Council (ICC) is closely monitoring the security arrangements for the World Cup and Commonwealth Games.
The 2011 ICC World Cup has been hit hard by the security situation in the region. Pakistan - its fourth host nation - had to surrender its right to stage World Cup matches after a terrorist attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore last March.

for the India-Pakistan match to be played at the National Stadium during the Hockey World Cup.
The match was scheduled for evening and due to security concerns a lot of people were complaining of difficulties in getting tickets.

In fact, the online tickets for the match were sold out two days before the match and the retail counters were selling tickets by the dozen.

Kalmadi reportedly instructed his staff to hand over six passes for the match to a man named Anand, who would come to collect them on behalf of Dwivedi.

In the evening around 5 pm, Anand came to the IOA office and collected the passes. However, the staff at Kalmadi's office got suspicious and lodged a written complaint at the Tughlaq Road police station.
Since Kalmadi's staff had no details on Anand, the police asked for the number from which Dwivedi had made the call.

The police traced the number to an acting school at Greater Kailash II.
When the police interrogated the owner of the school, he told them he had a friend called Anand who was looking for tickets/passes for the India-Pakistan match. The police got to know of the whereabouts of Anand from him.

Once he was picked up, Anand told the police he had asked a person named Raj Dwivedi, a student of the

Superhit muqabla

The historic India-Pakistan match on the opening day of the Hockey World Cup on Sunday attracted record number of audience in the country, generating viewing figures akin to that of one-day cricket internationals.
The match, in which India beat Pakistan 4-1 during primetime, gained an audience share of 8.9 on Doordarshan (TVR = 1.8) and 1.3 on Ten Sports, a FIH media release said.
By way of a benchmark, cricket's TVR on Doordarshan for the four one-day internationals between India v Sri Lanka in December last year ranged from 1.1 to 2.3, averaging 1.85.
Ten Sports will be telecasting all the 38 matches, while the state broadcaster Doordarshan will be simultaneously telecasting matches played by India, the semifinals and finals.
Ten Sports has a reach of 12.5-13 million households and together with Doordarshan, it expects to reach about 55-60 million homes.