The Centre, for the past nine months, has been sitting on a reference from the Tamil Nadu government recommending the transfer of an alleged cheating case against the former IPL chief Lalit Modi and others to the CBI.
The External Affairs Ministry says it has not received any formal request for his extradition in this and other cases against Mr. Modi.
To a query by a student RTI activist, Saurav Das, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) recently confirmed that the proposal was still under consideration of the government and that no final view had been taken on the issue yet.
The Union Home Ministry, in a separate reply, said it received the reference from the Tamil Nadu government on October 31, 2017, and forwarded it to the DoPT on November 16 last year.
Given that there has been no development of any consequence in terms of criminal investigation, no enforcement agency has so far pushed for Mr. Lalit Modi’s extradition. The RTI activist had also approached the External Affairs Ministry, which said no such request had been received. The reply comes amid government claims of expediting extradition of wanted suspects.
The Crime Branch of the State police registered the case on October 13, 2010, following a complaint by the then BCCI honorary secretary, N. Srinivasan, against Mr. Lalit Modi and six others.
Based on the FIR, the Enforcement Directorate lodged a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in December 2012. A separate investigation under the Foreign Exchange Management Act had already been initiated by the directorate.
In the money laundering case, the ED could not move further as the police had not filed any chargesheet. It took almost seven years for the police to come to a conclusion that they had no “territorial jurisdiction” and that the Mumbai police was competent to pursue the case.
The CB CID sought further legal opinion, on the basis of which it requested transfer of the case to the CBI.
The FIR alleged that Mr. Lalit Modi and other accused entered into a conspiracy to sign contracts on behalf of the BCCI with different entities allegedly managed by some of them, committed irregularities for illegal gratification and cheated the BCCI on several instances “to the tune of ₹425 crore, ₹125 crore, ₹200 crore and ₹3.5 crore”.
