The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will soon file a criminal case against former Indian Premier League (IPL)
Former IPL chief Lalit Modi during his heyday
Modi shifted to London in April 2009 and has visited India only once in April 2010 to meet his lawyers. He was sacked as IPL commissioner and dropped from the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) governing body in May 2010 after allegations of irregularities in the selection of ipl franchises surfaced. His passport was revoked by the Government in January 2011. He replied to a notice invoking criminal conspiracy issued by the Chennai Police in a case of financial misappropriation filed by the bcci, but is yet to respond to four show-cause notices issued by the ED.
Mahmood Abidi, Modi's lawyer, says his client's appeal in 2011 to the Ministry of External Affairs to restore his passport met with no response. He adds that Modi is in the process of replying to the ED's show-cause notices. "We will have the replies soon," says Abidi, adding, "This is a witchhunt against him by some vested interests. My client has repeatedly said he cannot come back to India because his life is under serious threat from the Mumbai underworld."
In October 2011, Modi told ED that he would answer queries over video conference. He even offered to fly down ED officials for an interrogation in London. Both the offers were rejected by the investigating agency. The former IPL commissioner, who has started a website with six photos of himself on the home page, has micro-blogged on every single grouse he had against current BCCI officials from London. His latest tweet blames the BCCI for not paying Sunil Gavaskar Rs 4 crore it owes the former India captain for services rendered during the IPL.
Pressure is also mounting on the bcci with the ed claiming that the board entered into financial transactions worth Rs 16,500 crore but accounted for only Rs 250 crore during the second edition of ipl in South Africa in 2009. This was in contravention of India's foreign exchange rules. The board could be served 12 show-cause notices, in addition to those already served, by the ED in January. The tournament was shifted to South Africa after the Indian Government expressed its inability to provide security to the matches since they coincided with the Lok Sabha elections. The BCCI hosted the tournament after entering into an agreement with Cricket South Africa (CSA).
January will also see ED issuing notices to all franchise holders of the ipl who got funds from abroad. The agency, which maintains some franchisees indulged in violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 2000, will continue its investigations against team owners. In August 2011, ED officials interrogated former board president Shashank Manohar, who claimed all financial decisions pertaining to ipl were taken by Modi "without informing other BCCI officials". The agency interrogated Shah Rukh Khan, owner of Kolkata Knight Riders, for his IPL investments and the franchise he bought in January 2008 for $75.09 million for a 10-year period. It also questioned former India captain Ravi Shastri, a member of the IPL governing council when it was headed by Modi, on whether he was privy to the league's financial dealings.
"We have answers to the financial transactions and have told the ed that the bcci did not indulge in any hawala transactions. Four notices have come from the ED and we have been told other notices could follow," BCCI legal head P.R. Raman told India Today. He said BCCI had informed the ed that Rs 250 crore was remitted to CSA from the current account in a branch of the State Bank of Travancore in Jaipur and hence the board did not seek any prior permission from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). "We understand that only capital account transactions need to be intimated to the authorities and not current account transfers," says Raman. But the ED maintains that all fund transfers must have RBI approval.
"We are confident of explaining everything to the ED," says Raman, adding that BCCI President N. Srinivasan will soon depose before the agency.
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