IPL 3: BCCI unearths new financial scam,Rs 76 crore in ticket sales reportedly missing

“An amount of Rs 76 crore and 22 lakh through sale of hospitality tickets for the final (on April 25),the third place tie (held on April 24) and the two semifinals (all held in Mumbai) is unaccounted for,” BCCI sources,who did not want to be named,said here.

“Hospitality ticket for the final cost Rs 1 lakh,Rs 80,000 for the third place tie and cost Rs 50,000 for the two semifinals. There is no account for these and there is no signed contract,” the sources said.

“Only 30,000 tickets for the final have been accounted for while the stadium (D Y Patil Stadium) was packed to capacity as everyone had seen and it can hold 52,000 people. Over 20,000 tickets are unaccounted for,” they said.

The final was held between eventual champions Chennai Super Kings,led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni,and Sachin Tendulkar’s Mumbai Indians.

Sources also revealed there appeare to be irregularities in another deal wrapped up by Modi.

The Delhi-based company which got the deal (for supply of machines to screen spectators’ bags at the match venues) existed only on paper and the invoice for a much lesser amount than shown in the accounts was sent to the Board by another Bangalore firm,the sources explained.

“The accounts show that the Delhi company,whose address turned out to be a guest house,had been given a contract for Rs 5.5 crore but the invoice we received from the Bangalore company for the same service was for Rs 1.5 crore out of which only Rs 70 lakh had been paid to it,” the sources said.

“These things came to light when the Governing Council members sat together with the internal auditors. All these would be placed before the AGM (on September 29),” they said.

Seven members,including IPL interim chairman Chirayu Amin who is also a member of the three-man disciplinary panel set up by the Board to probe the alleged irregularities committed by Modi,did not attend today’s meeting.

Amin and another GC member,Arun Jaitley,are conducting the probe in Delhi against Modi along with Jyotiraditya Scindia. Jaitley too could not attend the GC meeting.

Other absentees were ex-cricketers Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi,Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri,along with Farooq Abdullah and I S Bindra.