Dark horse races to BTC finish line

BENGALURU: Managing committee members of the Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) on Sunday unanimously voted to remove Mr Harinder Shetty from the post of chairman on a no-confidence motion that was tabled against him 10 days ago. The government nominees, however, abstained from voting.

Mr Yathiraj Jagannath, a senior steward, has been elected as the new chairman of BTC.

The decision to oust Mr Shetty was taken at the meeting after the committee found him to be working against the interest of the club, a senior steward told Deccan Chronicle.

“Mr Shetty has brought disrepute to BTC by instigating a false media campaign and endangering the club’s long-term interest. He hastily approached the government seeking its intervention, while the investigations surrounding the three-year-old filly ‘Queen Latifa’ which tested ‘positive’ for procaine – a painkiller – by the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL) was still at the preliminary stage,” he said.

“Mr Shetty was proved to be in the league with unsavoury elements who had filed a ‘false complaint’ accusing top BTC officials of withholding dope test results of Queen Latifa and destroying evidence. All procedures were followed, while maintaining a complete transparency. Detection of procaine in the urine of Queen Latifa was erroneously called positive by NDTL, as it did not follow the internationally laid reporting level for the detection of procaine,” the committee member said.

The committee member pointed that Mr Shetty talked about the conspiracy to hide the results without realising the fact that he was the chairman of the club at that time and that nothing moves without him being party to every decision.