Seven years after booking former Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Lalit Modi and six others in a case relating to misappropriation of funds to the tune of ₹468 crore, the Tamil Nadu police have recommended to the State Government that the high-profile case be transferred to the Mumbai Police, highly placed sources said on Friday.
With the investigation making hardly any progress all these years, the Director General of Police transferred the case from the Central Crime Branch of the Chennai Police to the Crime Branch CID in April this year. However, days later legal opinion was received that the case was more civil than criminal in nature and better be investigated in Mumbai where the offence reportedly took place, the sources said.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had lodged a complaint against Mr. Lalit Modi and others in October, 2010, accusing them of indulging in criminal conspiracy, cheating and falsification of accounts. The allegation was that funds amounting to ₹468 crore were misappropriated in the conduct of IPL. A company – World Sports, Mauritius - was floated to sign agreements with corporate firms for various IPL-related events.
Mr. Lalit Modi, who migrated to the United Kingdom even before the registration of FIR in the case, and six others, mostly living abroad, were named as accused in the case. The CCB which first investigated the case sent several summons to Mr. Modi. However, he refused the summons and never turned up for inquiry before the investigation officer. The former IPL chairman was empowered by the governing council of BCCI comprising top cricket veterans and others to sign agreements with private firms in the conduct of the IPL. It was during these transactions that the alleged fraud took place, the sources said.
‘Case civil in nature’
According to officials in the Home Department, State prosecutors were of the view that the case was more civil in nature. The BCCI was an institution registered under the Societies Act with its headquarters and administration in Mumbai. “None of the alleged transactions took place in Chennai or Tamil Nadu. There is nothing to investigate here…it will only be prudent to transfer the case to Maharashtra where Mr. Modi is also wanted by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case. This case should not have been taken up by the Chennai Police at all,” a senior police official told The Hindu on Friday.
The Chennai police’s recent move to transfer the case against former Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Lalit Modi and others to the Crime Branch CID followed a strongly worded letter from the Enforcement Directorate to the Tamil Nadu police, it is learnt.
In a communication dated March 30, 2017, a copy of which was made available to The Hindu , the Director of Enforcement, Karnal Singh, wrote to State Director-General of Police T.K. Rajendran that despite repeated requests the Central Crime Branch (CCB) of the Chennai police had not intimated the progress made in the investigation of the case against Mr. Lalit Modi.
Meanwhile, as efforts were on to extradite him from the United Kingdom, Mr. Modi had submitted certain documents before the Interpol, claiming them to be the internal report of the Tamil Nadu police.
The report said the Chennai police had concluded that the case was more civil than criminal in nature, and cause of action arose out of contracts entered into by office-bearers of the Board of Control for Cricket in India with third parties.It also said that the offences alleged to have been committed by the accused were purely financial in nature and also involved huge sums of money in foreign exchange. Hence, legal opinion may be sought and the complaint be referred to the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, for further action.
Mr. Karnal Singh sought to know whether the report was genuine and if so how an enquiry “may be conducted to find how & why it was made available to the accused Lalit Modi.” He said “the inability of the Tamil Nadu police in logically concluding investigation of the case is causing embarrassment to the Law Enforcement agencies …”
