I-T officials grill Lalit Modi for 8 hours

Mumbai, Apr 16: Indian Premier League Commissioner Lalit Modi was grilled for eight hours by the Income Tax officials over the funding details of the franchisees.

According to reports, I-T officials visited IPL Head-Quarters at Wankhede Stadium and also Modi's office at Nirlon House in upmarket Worli, where they quizzed him from 7.15 pm to 3.20 am.

Speaking to reporters, Modi said the I-T officials were visiting several places in the city in a bid to find out details of the bidding process and when he came to know of it, he invited them over to his office.

"They were given documentation details, they verified the documents and went through the entire process of bidding. We fully cooperated with them and provided them with all they required," the IPL Commissioner said.

Modi said the officials saw the documents related to bidding by new franchisees owned by Sahara and Kochi consortium as well as those related to other IPL franchisees.

"They were very much satisfied. We are a public body and if they have more queries, we will answer them," he said on whether I-T authorities sought more time to question him.

However, Agriculture Minister and former BCCI chief Sharad Pawar came out in support of Modi.

Pawar said there was nothing wrong in disclosing the names of stakeholders to the public.

"The IPL Commissioner has all the rights to ask for information from franchisees. I see nothing wrong in making information public on IPL franchisees," Pawar added.

OneIndia News