Top BCCI officials hit out at CoA as Rahul Johri’s deadline for response gets over

Top office-bearers in the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) demanded that an independent panel be put in place to probe into the allegations of sexual misconduct against CEO Rahul Johri as his time for replying to the charges have ended.

Whether Johri has submitted his resignation or not–is a fact that has no clarity in it after he was accused of sexual harassment by an anonymous person on Twitter days ago.

There seems to be no confirmation from either the Committee of Administrators (CoA) or from BCCI’s Internal Complaints Committee Member advocate Karina Kriplani on whether Johri has given his reply after he was given seven days for a reply.

“This is a legal matter and I won’t comment on this,” Kriplani said, as quoted by PTI.

Also read: CoA seek explanation from Rahul Johri after allegations of sexual harassment surfaced

Senior BCCI office-bearers have raised questions on the CoA’s handling of the issue saying that it wasn’t transparent at all.

In an interaction with PTI on Saturday, a senior official of the board said, ” I would like to know why the CoA is not maintaining transparency in its probe? These are serious allegations and an independent body should have been appointed by CoA for an impartial probe,” a senior office-bearer told PTI on Saturday.

“Why should we as well as a lot of BCCI employees believe in the CoA probe? Johri has been reporting to CoA and it was only fair that they should have recused themselves from the probe.

“The CoA is violating the basic principles of transparency that Lodha Panel wanted BCCI to follow,” he added.

Also read: #MeToo: BCCI CEO Rahul Johri asked to sit out of ICC meeting following allegations of sexual misconduct

Another top official of the board suggested that the CoA earlier had mishandled a case of an alleged misconduct against a female employee by the CEO.

Aditya Verma, the man who raised questions on the IPL and spot-fixing called for the CoA to have a straight approach to this entire issue.

“We have so many female employees and a robust women’s cricket system. If we let an alleged predator scot-free, will it be setting a good example,” the official asked.

“A powerful union minister (M J Akbar) had to resign in the wake of #MeToo storm. The only fair thing would be that Johri resigns to allow an impartial probe,” he added.