The city police have summoned former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi and six others. This is in response to a complaint filed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which alleged Modi misused Rs 470 crore of funds.
According to sources, the crime branch of the Chennai Police decided to take action on the complaint filed by BCCI secretary (and president-elect), N Srinivasan, on October 15. They said Modi and six others were issued summons today, for questioning on various dates in the first week of January. Modi has to appear on January 7.
The six others include Seamus O'Brien, founder of the World Sports Group, and Venu Nair, the India head of WSG, the company which won telecast rights of IPL.
The complaint of Srinivasan, also the vice chairman of India Cements, which owns one of the IPL teams, Chennai Super Kings, charges misappropriation of funds, mainly in allotting media rights and free commercial rights. The complaint was filed in Chennai as the Cricket Board is registered here.
“In the last BCCI annual general meeting, we decided to file a comprehensive complaint against Modi for misusing the funds and the secretary was authorised to file the complaint,” Srinivasan had said earlier.
Of the Rs 470 crore of alleged misappropriation of BCCI funds, Rs 420 crore was related to media rights. The rest is on endorsements, deals and security-related charges.
