The Enforcement Directorate has issued a show cause notice to the Board of Control for Cricket in India suspended IPL commissioner Lalit Modi for transfer of Rs 90 crore to the UK, in connection with its probe in alleged financial irregularities in the T20 cricket tournament.
This is the first show cause notice by the agency in the case after it last year began investigations related to various contraventions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) in the conduct of the glamourous cricketing event in the country and abroad.
"The notice has been sent to the Board of Control for Cricket in India and Lalit Modi for the transfer of funds, totalling about Rs 90 crore, to the UK in violation of norms laid down in this regard by the RBI," ED sources said.
The ED has asked both the BCCI and Modi to reply to a set of questions which the agency has found un-answered during its probe into the transfer of funds to various domestic and offshore locations in connection with the IPL.
The show cause notice can either be replied in person or by an authorised representative of the BCCI and Modi along with documentary proof.
The ED unit, according to sources, has traced some remittances to an event management firm in the UK, hired for the IPL by the BCCI, and a report from the RBI in this connection has said that due permissions from the regulator to transfer this fund were not taken.
The show cause notice, under provisions of FEMA, is an effort to obtain the facts for such a movement of funds by the BCCI and Modi, who was the Commissioner of the IPL then.
Widening its probe into the finances of the IPL, the ED had also summoned former India captain Ravi Shastri.
The ED is investigating the alleged violations under the FEMA against various IPL franchises and foreign exchange and remittance related offences and connected issues concerning both the IPL and the BCCI.
Commenting on the notice to the Cricket Board, BCCI Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty said it was a routine enquiry by the ED.
"These kind of notices keep coming and we furnish all details. Agencies like ED and I-T have been asking questions and we give answers to everything. This has been happening for over an year now," he told reporters in Mumbai.
