Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president PT Usha has submitted a 61-page response to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India’s charge of favouring Reliance Industries Limited (RIL).

Refuting the charges, the Indian track and field Olympian, stated that ‘assumptions does not hold good’, blaming the earlier administrators for the flawed process as ‘as it did not specify that the granting of naming rights… to a sponsor would be governed by the IOC guidelines’. She has requested the auditors to settle the matter.

In her response, a copy of her signed contract in 2022 and the internal communication about the renegotiation of the 35-crore deal with the RIL has been submitted.

She also argued in her defense that unlike the CWG, Asian Games, Olympics, the Youth and Winter Olympics have ‘no meaningful public or media interest’.

“The calculation by the CAG audit team assumes that each of the six events… would bring in uniform sum of Rs 6 crore per event to the IOA and therefore, additional four events should have also drawn in similar sums. As explained above, such an assumption does not hold good.”

“In view of the details provided above, it is requested that the half margin maybe settled,” she concluded.