Modi will be given a fair trial: Srinivisan
By IANSMonday, June 28, 2010
NEW DELHI - Indian cricket board secretary N.Srinivisan has said the July 3 Special General Meeting (SGM) has not been convened to sack suspended Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi. Srinivisan said Modi will get a fair trial and rubbished claims that he is acting out of “personal grudge.”
Srinivisan has rejected the replies of Modi contained in the three showcause notices and referred the charges to the discplinary committee of the BCCI for further proceedings.
When asked whether the July 3 SGM is an excuse to hang Modi without a trial, Srinivisan told NDTV: “I don’t understand where does that come from. The general body is going to meet and there are two items. One is to rectify the action of secretary in referring this to the disciplinary committee, in that case we would re-constitute the disciplinary committee in which (BCCI president) Mr. Shashank Manohar recused himself.
“The general body is going to decide my action in referring it to the disciplinary committee is approved or not approved. If they approve then the second part comes in which the the disciplinary committee would be re-constituted. Then they would have hold a hearing and follow due process and then their report would again come to general body
So I don’t understand what is being said.”
Asked why he did not recuse himself from the proceedings like Manohar after Modi counter-charged both the board officials, Srinivisan said: “when a show cause notice is issued the decision on the reply has only to be made by the secretary and there is nobody else to do it…my proceedings have been circulated to all the members so the general body will then decide whether my decision is to be approved or not. So therefore how can you talk of bias or personal feelings here because members are going to decide.”
Srinivasan said Modi kept the Board in the dark over a 80 million dollar facilitation fee paid in 2009 by Sony MSM to the World Sports Group to get the IPL rights back.
“I have no prejudices at all and I believe that I acted very fairly. Even till today I have never discussed anything and even today I refuse to discuss any further the fact of the return of the money.”
