IPL's embattled Chairman Lalit Modi was grilled for the second time in two days today by Income Tax authorities. The IT sleuths raided offices of two more team owners in the nation-wide probe into its alleged murky finances. They focused on a multi-million dollar deal for the telecast rights of Indian Premier League matches. Officials of the Enforcement Directorate(ED), which is probing whether there was any flow of illegal foreign funds into IPL, were also involved in the joint questioning of Modi that began at 8.30 this morning .According to ED sources, the teams of the two central agencies collected some documents relating to the IPL franchisees from Modi's office at Four Seasons Hotel in central Mumbai and later questioned him at another office at Nirlon House at Worli. <br/><br/>In the cross-country raids, the tax sleuths surveyed the offices of real estate major GMR and Sahara group–the owners of Delhi Daredevils and the new franchisee IPL Pune–in Delhi and Lucknow respectively.<br/><br/>In Kolkata ,Income Tax officials probing alleged financial irregularities in the cash-rich IPL claimed to have found some incriminating documents during searches at the offices of the Kolkata Knight Riders and Cricket Association of Bengal(CAB). The searches which began last evening went on till wee hours of this morning. An IT official said in Kolkata this morning further investigation will be carried out to find out all transactions of IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders and CAB. The office bearers of CAB including its Joint Secretary, Mr. Biswarup Dey were questioned during the raids.<br/><br/>In Chennai also, IT officials searched the offices of India Cements Limited, the Owner of Chennai Super Kings team .Sources said that the raid went up till three in the morning. The Company which owns Chennai Super kings team had won the bid for 91 million dollars in 2008.<br/><br/>Meanwhile, NCP today dismissed reports of involvement of any of its leaders or their relatives in any financial wrongdoings in the cricket league. Party spokesman D P Tripathi also ruled out the possibility of resignation of Union Ministers Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel in the wake of IPL controversy. Briefing media in New Delhi, he said, there is nothing wrong in Civil Aviation Minister Patel's personal office forwarding projections of new franchisee valuations to Tharoor before the Kochi team won the bid. He also denied that Sadanand Sule, son-in-law of Pawar and husband of NCP MP Supriya Sule, holds any share in Multi Screen Media, formerly known as Sony Entertainment Television, which has also been raided by Income Tax officials. Mr Tripathi added that Sadanand Sule has been associated with the Sony Television even before the IPL was born.
News On AIR | April 22, 2010 6:27 PM
Modi is grilled afresh as taxmen raid team owners’ offices