By Anu Kurian
Did you know that…
* Suresh Kalmadi served in the Indian Air Force as a pilot. He also took part in both Indo-Pak wars between 1965 and 1971 and was also a recipient of eight medals in his career as a pilot.
* He ran a small fast food joint (Pune Coffee House) in Pune before his foray into politics
* He was first spotted by Sanjay Gandhi and in 1978 became the president of the Maharashtra Pradesh Youth Congress
* He was the Minister of State for Railways and presented the Railway Budget during 1995-96. He is the only MoS to have presented the Railway Budget.
* He has been the president of the Asian Athletics Association (AAA) since 2001.
* His father, the Late Dr. Shamrao Kalmadi, inspired him to join politics. "I learnt from him that I must do something for society and am grateful to him for the inspiration. This urge to serve the people brought me to politics."
* As a young man, he loved to race down on his bike and have lots of beer, which eventually gave way to gin and tonic
* He is known for his temper tantrums and his fondness for the good life. His neighbours still recall the generally affable man's famous temper tantrums.
* He is a student of Pune's most reputable institutions -- St Vincent's, Fergusson College and the National Defence Academy at Khadakwasla
* He is also a connoisseur of Thai food
* Even though Sharad Pawar was his patron, he has been in every political party in Maharashtra -- be it Congress, BJP or Shiv Sena
* He was close to Rajiv Gandhi and Arun Singh
* He owns the country's biggest Maruti dealership, the Sai Motors chain.
* He also owns Bajaj two-wheeler showrooms, petrol pumps and Pune's costliest commercial complex.
* During the 2009 elections, he declared Rs 10 crore as income
* He won the Congress High Command's attention when he, along with another activist Shyam Pawar threw slippers on the then Prime Minister of India Morarji Desai's car and lay down in front of the vehicle.
* It was a sports reporter from a local daily who coaxed Kalmadi into the world of sports administration
*Place of birth on Parliament website: Madras; on his personal website: Pune
* To date, Kalmadi has held key positions in about eight sports bodies across India.
* Kalmadi's arrest, on the charge of causing a loss of Rs 95 crore to the exchequer, came six months after the Commonwealth Games concluded.
* In June 2007, Kalmadi signed an agreement with F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone which claimed that the IOA will help promote the sport in the nation by building infrastructure for the mega-event in India in 2010 by eliciting "support from Central and state governments to construct the circuit". Three months later, the F1 Administration Limited signed a Rs 1,600-crore contract with JPSK Sports Private Limited to build the necessary infrastructure.
According to the report, JPSK is owned by multiple stake holders. Majority of the stakes are held by Jaiprakash Associates (74%); the rest are owned by Sulba Realty Private Limited (13%), a Pune-based organisation which has Sumeer Kalmadi as its director, and Trackwork International Pvt Ltd, a Delhi-based firm (13%). A year later, Kalmadi's daughter and her husband joined the group as the directors.
Source: India Syndicate
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