After a photograph of him and Lalit Modi surfaced on Saturday, Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria admitted that he had met the scam-tainted former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner in London last year, but claimed that he had informed the authorities about the meeting on his return to India. The photograph — dated July 17, 2014 and clicked at 15:20, according to the timestamp on it — shows Maria and Modi having a conversation. In a press release issued on Saturday evening, Maria said, “I was on an official visit to London to attend a conference. At the conference, I was approached by an advocate representing Modi who stated that Modi wanted to meet me as regards to a grave threat to his and his family's life”. “We met, albeit briefly, wherein Modi sought the Mumbai Police's help as he and his family members were being threatened by the underworld. I categorically informed Modi that Mumbai Police had no jurisdiction in London and he should return to Mumbai to lodge a formal complaint,” said Maria. On his return to India, claimed Maria, he informed the then state Home Minister, late RR Patil, about the meet. “I immediately brought the above details to the notice of the Home Minister and also maintained the requisite confidential record of the same. Besides, the Anti-Extortion Cell ( AEC) of the Mumbai Police was also given, in writing, the details of what had transpired in the meeting for discreet enquiry at their end," he said. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government is currently caught in a political storm after it was revealed that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had helped Modi, who is under an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate and is considered a fugitive from Indian law, with his travel documents. Vasundhara Raje, the chief minister of the BJP government in Rajasthan, has also been accused of helping Modi.
