New Delhi/ Mumbai: Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi is under fire -- from the government and the BCCI.
Sources have told CNN-IBN the BCCI is “shocked” at reports of Modi's alleged financial irregularities and will set up a three-member interim committee to investigate him
Sources say BCCI president Shashank Manohar and secretary N Srinivasan are planning to move a resolution against Modi at the board’s working committee meeting on May 2. The resolution could either reduce Modi's powers in the IPL, or remove him from it altogether.
The meeting will discuss allegations against Modi and all other issues related to the Kochi IPL franchise bid. The BCCI working committee meeting would be preceded by a meeting of the IPL's governing council on April 25.
"All the allegations (against Modi) and other issues would be discussed in the governing council. The date would be announced soon," said Rajiv Shukla, the BCCI's media and finance committee chairman, in Delhi.
But Modi has a tougher opponent in the government. Government sources say the Revenue Secretary and Enforcement Directorate will be briefing Income Tax officials on Monday on how to speed up a probe against Modi.
The Enforcement Directorate is likely to soon start an investigation into Modi's foreign transactions. A report in the Economic Times quoting sources says the Income Tax department is in possession of a report, which suggests Modi is allegedly into large-scale betting and money-laundering.
The newspaper report says the department has prepared the report after accessing his e-mail account, confidential conversations on a UK cell phone number and regulatory filings from across the globe.
The government appears to be stepping up pressure on Modi after Shashi Tharoor resigned as Minister of State for External Affairs on Sunday a week after Modi revealed that the Congress MP’s friend had equity stakes in Rendezvous Sports World (RSW), which heads the consortium that owns the Kochi team.
A senior Union Minister on Monday alleged IPL was “glorified betting” and the Left parties demanded that it be nationalized.
Modi appears unperturbed. “I reject the betting charges. I will file defamation case against the newspapers,” he said on Monday.
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