Lalit Modi moves apex court on BCCI probe against him

NEW DELHI - Former Indian Premier League (IPL) chief Lalit Modi Tuesday moved the Supreme Court seeking restraint on proceedings of a panel appointed by the Indian cricket board to probe charges of irregularities against him.

Modi told the court that he could not expect fair findings from the disciplinary committee as its member were party to the decision to hold the inquiry against him.

The three members of the committee are: interim chairman of IPL Chirayu Amin, Arun Jaitley and Jyotiraditya Scindia.

The former IPL head has challenged a Bombay High Court order by which it had dismissed his plea for the reconstitution of the disciplinary committee.

Modi contended that since the committee members were bound by the decision they have consented to, they could not be free from an inherent bias.

Modi is being probed for number of charges including financial irregularities in bids rigging in the award of IPL franchise. One of the charges against Modi is that he held proxy stakes in one of the IPL franchisee.

In his plea before the high court, Modi challenged his suspension and said the inquiry against him was “motivated and baseless”.

The former IPL chief said that at the instance of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary N. Srinivasan, the board launched a prosecution against him on the basis of media reports.

The action was based on complaints of outsiders who were neither the board’s office bearers nor its administrators in their capacity as its past office bearers.

He said that the high court had erred by holding that his plea against an apparent bias of the disciplinary committee could not be raised at an initial stage. The court said it could only be raised along with a challenge to the final order of the board.

Modi contended before the high court that Srinivasan was himself involved in a conflict of interest in the ownership of IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings. The IPL team is owned by India Cements company of which he was the vice-chairman and managing director, he said.