All You Need To Know About 10 Court Cases Against Lalit Modi

Even his detractors acknowledged that Lalit Modi had succeeded where others had failed. The disgraced Indian Premier League (IPL) czar's flamboyant promotion of the league with red-carpet celebrities and foreign cheerleaders attracted the high and mighty to cricket. Mukesh Ambani, the country's richest man, bought the Mumbai Indians franchise. Bollywood's most popular actor, Shah Rukh Khan, took a big stake in the Kolkata Knight Riders and cheers them on from the sidelines of every game.

 

Arguably, cricket is a religion in India. The IPL, which began in 2008, features the world's top players signed up for huge fees by rich business houses and individuals in a glitzy mix of sport and entertainment. Since the inception of the IPL, there have been uncomfortable questions over franchise ownership. And it culminated in the fight between former Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor and Lalit Modi over the latter's disclosure of Tharoor's dubious shareholding in the Kochi franchise, and was followed by Modi's ouster.

 

Modi was found guilty, among other things, of rigging bids during the franchise auction in 2010, selling media and internet rights without authorisation and secretly trying to create a rebel T20 league in England without the knowledge of the Indian and England boards.

 

 

1) Lalit Modi faces a slew of charges and court cases in India but the one that caused his passport to be revoked, eventually leading to the ongoing controversy involving Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, was an allegation of foreign exchange violation. It was among 22 accusations brought by the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) that led to Modi's suspension as chairman and commissioner of the IPL in April 2010 and prompted him to flee India in October that year. The Enforcement Directorate began investigating the foreign exchange violation charge. When Lalit Modi kept evading its summons, the agency got the government to revoke his passport in March 2011.

 

2) According to an espncricinfo.com report, when the invitation to tender (ITT) for rights to two new franchises that were to be auctioned in 2010, it was claimed that Lalit Modi had added two onerous conditions to the ITT without informing the BCCI, though he claimed he had informed this verbally to the then BCCI president Shashank Manohar.

 

3) When Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's son Dushyant Singh (BJP MP from Jhalawar-Baran) started his company Niyant Heritage Hotels in 2005, its shares were priced at Rs 10 each. But three years on, Lalit Modi's Anand Heritage Hotels paid Rs 96,180 for each share in a deal now being probed by the Enforcement Directorate. The reports said a total amount of Rs 11.63 crore was transferred to Dushyant's firm through loans and purchased shares.

 

4) In September 2013, the BCCI's disciplinary committee, manned by Arun Jaitley and Jyotiraditya Scindia, found Lalit Modi guilty on eight counts, including financial irregularities, misconduct, indiscipline and "actions detrimental to the interest of the BCCI" - and even posting threatening tweets.

 

5) It indicted Lalit Modi for allegedly rigging bids during the 2010 auction for new franchises, arm-twisting some franchise buyers and selling media and Internet rights without authorisation.

 

6) The list of 22 charges the BCCI had emailed Modi in April 2010 included the allegation of embezzling $80 million from a TV deal. He fled India six months later saying he feared for his life.

 

Modi has claimed innocence all through, defending himself mostly on Twitter and television channels but never appearing before the BCCI disciplinary committee or the Enforcement Directorate.

 

7) A case lodged in Rajasthan accused Modi of dishonouring the national flag during an India-Pakistan match in November 2007. The media had splashed pictures of the Tricolour being used as a tablecloth on which liquor glasses were placed in the VIP gallery.

 

8) In 2005, former Jaipur District Cricket Association member Anil Shekhawat had lodged a case accusing Modi of embezzling Rs 22 lakh of the association's money. Another criminal case was lodged in 2010 accusing Modi of illegally buying two heritage havelis (mansions) on Jaipur's outskirts. The then Congress government later cancelled the allotments.

 

9) Lalit Modi, a member of one of India's richest business families, was charged with failing to disclose links to owners with interests in Internet rights. The former IPL boss was also charged with disclosing shareholding pattern of the Kochi franchise, and misconduct for tweet that threatened to expose certain individuals in the BCCI.

 

10) Lalit Modi was charged with indiscipline and actions detrimental to the interest of the BCCI. He also faced allegations with awarding theatrical rights to a company without the approval of the governing council. The original company then assigned the rights to a third party after Lalit Modi's approval.