Govt will probe all aspects of IPL : Pranab

New Delhi, Apr 19: Promising strong action against offenders, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday, Apr 19, said that thorough probe on the source and uses of funds by the franchises of Indian Premier League (IPL) has been issued.

"I can assure you that all aspects of IPL will be probed, inclusive of the sources of funding, how the funds were routed and invested,"Mukhererjee told the Lok Sabha.

"I can assure the honourable members that no guilty or wrongdoer will be spared," he said on a day when an official communique from the Rashtrapati Bhavan said that President Pratibha Patil had accepted the resignation of Shashi Tharoor.

Mukherjee's statement came amidst the oppositions' growing demand to ban and probe sources the funding source of the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament.

Terming the IPL as "gambling" in the name of cricket, the opposition MPs in the Lok Sabha alleged that black money stashed in foreign banks was being invested in the IPL.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, while stating that opposition was not targeting Tharoor alone, demanded a porbe into "murky IPL business of shame and glamour"

"Why target Tharoor only? The main culprit is this IPL. This is a gambling and betting business. There are bigwigs involved. The entire network should be probed," Lalu Prasad said.

Yadav demanded that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) should be taken over by the government.

Speaker Meira Kumar cautioned the RJD leader against taking any name during his demand for a probe.

"Oh, I am sorry...I mean a top IPL official has purchased a jet and has huge wealth. This should be probed," he said.

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said that the wrong promotion of the"foreign sport" was being done at the expense of the national games in the country.

Janata Dal-United President Sharad Yadav asked the government to go beyond removing Shashi Tharoor and investigate the root cause of the problem.

"You have removed your minister. It doesn't stop there," the JD (U) President said.

The oppositions' demand for probe came in the wake of the resignation of Shashi Tharoor following the Kochi IPL controversy.

OneIndia News