A person cited as accused in a case registered by the Chennai Police on a complaint by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has filed a petition in the Madras High Court seeking anticipatory bail.
Harish Krishnamachar, employed with the World Sports Group (WSG) India as vice-president, South Asia, stated that he has been named as one of the accused in a case registered by the City Central Crime Branch, Egmore.
In October last year, the BCCI lodged a complaint against him and six others alleging that they had caused a loss of Rs.468 crore, mainly in the allotment of media rights and free commercial rights for IPL matches.
The case was for offences under sections 409 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 477-A (falsification of accounts) read with 120-B (punishment for criminal conspiracy.)
In his petition, Mr. Krishnamachar stated that the disputes between BCCI and WSG India were the subject of numerous civil cases currently pending adjudication. The underlying basis of the present criminal complaint “is the ulterior motive of BCCI to circumvent the civil litigation and to overreach the judicial process by making baseless allegations against law abiding individuals to injure their reputation in society.”Justice K.N. Basha, before whom the petition came up, granted a week's time to Additional Public Prosecutor P.Govindarajan to file counter.
