Mumbai court adjourns hearing of ED plea against Lalit Modi

The ED had on July 27 moved the court seeking a warrant against Modi after he did not respond to summons issued by the agency in a case registered against him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act or PMLA.

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On July 3, the agency summoned Modi and directed him to appear in person before the ED within 15 days. The deadline for personal appearance expired on July 19. Modi has so far not complied with the summons issued by ED.

The PMLA case against Modi is based on a criminal complaint filed by the BCCI in 2010, accusing him of misappropriation of funds during his tenure as IPL chief.

The ED has sought details from Modi on his role in the deal between World Sports Group, Mauritius and Multi Screen Media Singapore (MSMS). According to the ED petition, in 2008, BCCI awarded 10-year media rights to WSG India for $ 642 million and MSMS for $276 million for certain geographies.

In March 2009, Modi terminated the contract with MSMS for violating some rules and signed a fresh agreement with WSG Mauritius without following any tender process. The deal was for Rs 4792 crore for 9 years. Later that month, BCCI entered into contracts with MSMS under which the latter would pay the cricket body Rs 3949 crore for match broadcast right. MSMS also signed a contract with WSG Mauritius for a Rs 425 crore facilitation fee, which the BCCI later claimed should come to it.

According to ED’s petition, Modi “was not authorized to terminate the media rights contract with …MSMS.” He also didn’t follow any tender process or obtain approval from the IPL governing council for signing the deal with WSG Mauritius.

The ED’s application also said Modi caused losses of crores of rupees in a transaction where he appointed “without any written contract and without following any tender process” for exploiting the time between deliveries for ad rights. It also said the BCCI was cheated of Rs 3.5 crore by the manner in which Modi hired some security apparatus.

The ED summons were first served to Modi through his Mumbai solicitors, Wadia Ghandy & Co on 3 July. However, the law firm returned it to ED saying that it was not authorised to receive the summons. The enforcement agency on 7 July sent the summons to Modi through email. But Modi has maintained that he has not received any summons from ED.