AITA spent Rs one crore on President's foreign visits, a few with wife: Finance Committee member

New Delhi, Jun 24 (PTI) AITA Finance Committee member Hironmoy Chatterjee on Tuesday alleged that the tennis federation "wrongly" spent more than Rs one crore on President Anil Jain's foreign visits, including a few to Grand Slams with his wife -- a charge the sports body chief denied by claiming that he was entitled to travel with spouse.

Chatterjee also said that the All India Tennis Association (AITA) President worked against the members ahead of the September 2024 elections, forcing affiliated bodies to propose a no-confidence motion against him last year.

Chatterjee, who is also the AITA Vice President (Sports), said the Finance Committee in May 2022 raised the allowance of office-bearers for their foreign visits but it never got the approval of the EC.

"I was not invited to that meeting, though I am a member. They raised the lump sum entitlement to USD 700 per day for past and present presidents and secretary-generals. It was set at USD 300 where a hotel was provided while for EC members it was set at USD 175 per day plus actual hotel expenses for a maximum of seven days," Chatterjee told PTI.

"But they never got these recommendations approved by the EC. And while the president is entitled to allowances, the president's wife is not. Mr. Jain travelled to Grand Slams with his wife multiple times in business class during his tenure and AITA wrongly paid for that," Chatterjee said.

"If you calculate, AITA spent more than Rs one crore on the president's visits abroad between April 2021 and March 2025." According to the AITA constitution, all the sub-committees, like the finance and legal committee, ethics committee and selection committees are recommendatory bodies and the final decision rests with the Executive Committee.

Asked why the issue is being raised now, and not when it came to light in the past, Chatterjee said, "We did raise it at the 2023 AGM, but no information was given to us. Questions indeed were raised." Asked to respond to the allegations, Jain told PTI that he travelled to tennis Majors with his wife but he did that because he was entitled to.

"In the past, when the president's wife was not entitled, I paid for the travel of my wife and children from my own pocket. But after the AITA approved it, my wife travelled with me on entitlement," Jain claimed.

"I have never asked for any personal favours. I have worked for AITA and raised huge amounts of money for AITA and never took any money." When pointed out that the Finance Committee, in its meeting on May 3, 2022 did not include the president's wife's entitlement, Jain replied, "It was done separately otherwise I would not take her along." Chatterjee said exorbitant travel expense was one of the reasons for proposing a no-confidence motion against him last year.

The state units that proposed the no-confidence motion were Assam, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Tripura but it was later withdrawn.

"He wanted to disqualify all the members before the elections. That's working against the Federation. He wanted us to fill a declaration form about eligibility after the election process had started.

"It could not be done because the guidelines were already circulated and electoral collage was already formed. Mr. Jain and Navneet Sehgal forced the RO to get the declaration form filled from all and we pointed it out to the RO also that it was illegal and he had agreed.

"These are the reasons we had proposed a no-confidence motion against him." An EC member said, "Why do we need to spend so much money for president to watch Grand Slam matches? We need to spend this money on the development of players." EC meeting in Ahmedabad, and fiery e-mail exchange ================================= Jain and AITA EC members have been at loggerheads ever since the former requested the Delhi Court to declare the sports body's elections null and void due to alleged violation of the National Sports Code.

It prompted the EC members to call for a meeting on June 27 in Ahmedabad. Since then, allegations are flying thick and fast from both sides.

Jain's request to the court came while replying to a writ petition filed by former India players Somdev Devvarman and Purav Raja, who alleged that the AITA elections, conducted on September 28, 2024 were in violation of the Sports Code.

The EC members called for a meeting, saying the president did not discuss the issue in the EC before filing the reply on behalf of AITA.

In an e-mail to all EC members and affiliated state units regarding the meeting, one of the vice presidents claimed that Jain had brought bouncer to the DLTA stadium to physically threaten secretary-general Anil Dhupar on September 27 last year when his attempt to stall the polls did not bear fruit.

The EC member said even a police complaint was lodged against Jain.

"It was a "misadventure by a side-tracked politician", he wrote.

Jain said all the allegations are fabricated.

"This is all nonsense. They were required to fill a declaration but they never submitted that to the RO because it would have exposed their ineligibility to stand for the elections.

"I never brought any goons to the stadium but I am not aware of the police complaint, if they filed any." Jain mentioned in his e-mail reply that the EC meeting called on June 27 was illegal since the item listed in the agenda could not be discussed because the related matter was sub-judice.

Responding to that, Chatterjee said,"The court has not issued any such direction that we can't have an EC meeting. If this meeting is illegal, then how Mr Jain and Mr. Dhupar are still operating as office-bearers." PTI AT AM AT AM AM