Lalit Modi gets ED summons in money-laundering case

Modi had alleged that President Pranab Mukherjee, during his stint as Finance Minister, had pushed Enforcement Directorate to act against him after he had raised questions about the shareholding pattern in IPL’s Kochi franchise leading to resignation of Shashi Tharoor from the Union council of ministers.

Mumbai, July 7: Lalit Modi’s lawyer has returned the summons issued to the ex- IPL boss by the Enforcement Directorate seeking his presence before it in three weeks, maintaing he was not authorised to receive it, the Central agency said today. After the firm’s letter, the ED sent the summons to Modi on his personal email address. ED knows where I live.

According to reports, he has been given three weeks time to respond to the summons for questioning in connection with the money laundering case against him.

However, on Monday an ED source told an agency, “Summons were issued last week to Modi through his attorney, who appeared before us for an adjudicatory hearing”.

The case relates to a 2008 deal between World Sports Group and Multi Screen Media for television rights of IPL worth Rs 425 crore. “We are considering serving the summons to Modi’s London address through diplomatic channels”, an ED official said.

In February this year, Modi was among the accused who were slapped with show- cause notice for the same case under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

Since last month, the government has been under attack from the opposition over revelations that a pair of its top leaders, Sushma Swaraj and Vasundhara Raje, spoke to United Kingdom immigration officials to help Mr Modi.

In 2008, the BCCI awarded 10-year media rights to WSG for $918 million.

So far, the ED has investigated 15 other cases of over Rs 2,000 crore involving Modi and others under FEMA. “They are required to serve him summons as per the procedure prescribed in law”, said Abdi.

The sources added that the money laundering case, registered in 2015, has been filed by the agency based on an FIR filed by Srinivasan with Chennai police for suspected bungling of funds in awarding media rights for broadcasting BCCI-IPL cricket matches.