New Delhi:
The more you know about Ashish Patel, the less you know about him.
Till a week ago, he was no one in the public consciousness. Then, a letter arrived from London about investigations being made by the UK tax department into money unaccounted for having made its way into the coffers of a firm, AM Films. From the Commonwealth Games. Soon the name of another firm, AM Car Hire and Van Company, emerged. Behind both, a single man named Ashish Patel.
Within hours Patel was available for phone interviews describing himself as an entrepreneur and insisting that everything was aboveboard in his dealings with the Commonwealth Games organising committee.
Patel is said to have sold film equipment and rented out cars, ambulances, portable toilets and such like for the Queen's Baton ceremony held in London in October last year.
He spoke earnestly about raising invoices for services rendered, admitted he had received a whopping 247,000 pounds and claimed there was payment still to come from the Commonwealth Games.
Documents accessed by NDTV show nothing about him is quite as it seems. Ashish Patel frequently changed the registered addresses of his companies. He also frequently changed the management of his companies. He, in fact, frequently changed the names of his companies.
Patel would appoint himself and then resign from posts. The modus operandi seems to have been to open and shut companies.
Ashish Patel is already under a Registrar of Companies ban in London. He has been disqualified as a Director for the period March 17, 2010 to March 16, 2017. The Registrar has cited rules that deal with disqualification procedures for a director of an insolvent firm.
Documents from the Registrar show that while AM Films got a liquidation notice in July, which has now been withdrawn, sister company, Am Car and Van Hire Company, filed for liquidation in July 2010.
The documents show a day after getting the liquidation notice, Ashish Patel had resigned from his post of director.
For Patel's dealings with the CWG, there was no contract and no tender process. Both Ashish and members of the Commonwealth Games organising committee, including its chief Suresh Kalmadi, claim this is because contracting happened very fast to meet requirements for the Queen's Baton ceremony. Patel says he can produce details of the deal if needed.
He has also said he shall consult his lawyer and come down to India if needed. Then, perhaps, a little more shall be known about the man in the eye of the gigantic CWG storm.