Lalit Modi hits out at Srinivasan, Arun Jaitley

Chennai: Lalit Modi on Tuesday passed the buck to former BCCI president N. Srinivasan accusing him as responsible for the financial activities pertaining to IPL 2009, which was moved to South Africa and later came under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate for contraventions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act. Modi’s claims about procedural irregularities in the BCCI and IPL come in the wake of a growing controversy involving India’s foreign minister Sushma Swaraj, after it appeared that she helped him secure documents to travel out of the United Kingdom, where he has been living since 2010.

In an interview to India  Today TV, Modi said Srinivasan’s office excluded him from all financial activities pertaining to IPL 2009. “(Arun) Jaitley was part of the process of moving it to South Africa. So was Mr. Srinivasan. So was Mr Jyotiraditya Scindia. So was Mr (Sharad) Pawar. I was just a member of that committee. The decision was taken by the committee. I have said the BCCI was wrong in the way they operated the financial accounts in South Africa. That’s the basis on which the ED has penalised the BCCI for '1600 crore,” said Modi.

Modi said it was Srinivasan who took the call on how the bank accounts would be operated. “It is my reply to the ED which says very clearly that (then BCCI president) Shashank Manohar proposed that the BCCI should open accounts in South Africa subject to RBI approval. I was excluded by Mr Srinivasan’s office in their financial process. Srinivasan said in writing, ‘I am deciding how the bank accounts will be operated, and I will decide how the money will be transferred.’

He formed a committee  and this is the core connection  and he decided not to take the Reserve Bank of India’s approval, and decided on that basis to transfer money out. I had no role to play in that and I have shown clearly in my documentation to that effect.” In 2013, Modi was expelled for life by the BCCI after a disciplinary committee found him guilty on eight counts of indiscipline and misconduct.

That committee was headed by Jaitley, who is now the finance minister. Modi said the BCCI’s disciplinary committee, which investigated allegations of financial irregularities and subsequently recommended his ban, indicted him without giving him a fair opportunity to present his case.