In one of the cases, the CBI spokesperson said, "these officials have committed criminal misconduct by showing undue favour to a Delhi-based firm and cheated the government in awarding a contract for marketing rights of the French Open 1997 tennis tournament to this firm without any competitive bidding."

The investigations revealed that the telecast rights of French Open 1997 were purchased by DD for a licence fee of $90,000. Even though the marketing rights of the tournament are sold by DD on the basis of bids received for the same, in this case, no bids were called by the DD officials. "And they dishonestly and fraudulently awarded the contract of marketing rights to this firm on May 16, 1997, on a single offer basis in a single day,"he said.

In other cases too, including allotting telecast rights for Independence Cup 1997 and ICC Knockout 1998 and Wimbledon 1997, it has been found that these officials have cheated DD and the government by indulging in fraud, added the CBI spokesperson.

Since early morning today, the CBI has been conducting nationwide raids on the premises of some persons, including DD officials both present and former, allegedly involved in the bunglings in-grant of telecast rights for cricket matches and other tournaments,the CBI spokesperson said. The raids were spread over five cities-Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Bangalore and Lucknow.

Besides the DD officials, the CBI also raided the premises of former ICC president, Jagmohan Dalmiya, and Worldtel chief, Mark Mascrenhas. Earlier in July, Income-Tax officials had raided the premises of Mr Dalmiya in connection with the investigation in the match-fixing allegation.

Officials at the CBI's anti-corruption unit (ACU) raided the premises of five senior DD officials, including the director general during the 1996 World Cup, Mr K S Sarma.

The CBI has alleged that DD sold the television rights to private firms, even though it could do the work itself, said sources. They said, several files pertaining to telecast rights of World Cup Cricket 1996 and World Cup Cricket 1999 of DD had been scrutinised by the CBI before initiating a formal inquiry. During today's raid, the CBI asked Mr Dalmiya for papers related to DD's correspondence with Stracon, regarding telecast of Wimbledon 1997 and the ICC knockout held in Dhaka in 1998, sources said.

Meanwhile, the Prasar Bharati headquarter at Mandi House in Delhi, which houses some of the top officials alleged to be involved in the bungling of the telecast rights, witnessed closed-door meetings all through the day to discuss the implications of the ongoing raids. All this was happening while the Prasar Bharati CEO, R R Shah, was away in Mumbai holding some crucial deliberations with members of the Indian Broadcasters' Federation. On being contacted by The Financial Express, Mr R R Shah said, he would have to take a view on the CBI raids once the findings of the raids are out. He said,"My reaction on the whole thing will depend on whether the raids on the premises of DD officials yield incriminating evidence or not."