Lalit Modi’s fall from grace, his powerful backers and continuing battle with rivals
Bharat Sundaresan looks at Lalit Modi's fall from grace and how he manages to remain in the news.
Lalit Modi with Shah Rukh Khan, PreityZinta and Rajiv Shukla in Mumbai during IPL 2009. (Source: Express archive photo)
How did Lalit Modi, once the face of the IPL, become Indian cricket’s outcast?
Modi’s ouster from Indian cricket came as rapidly and unexpectedly as his rise. He arrived for the final of the IPL’s third edition on April 25, 2010, on a chartered flight, with seemingly everyone except him aware that his time was up. He even accompanied the two captains for the toss, and delivered a speech detailing the schedule for the following season.
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However, minutes after the last ball was bowled, the then IPL chairman was served with a suspension notice by the BCCI, along with a 34-page letter revealing 22 charges of impropriety. The board also slapped him with three showcause notices. He was alleged to have breached the confidentiality agreements between the BCCI and the IPL franchises by revealing on Twitter the ownership details of the now-defunct Kochi franchise. He was also accused of financial irregularities, rigging auctions for franchises, planning a parallel IPL in England and manipulating broadcast deals. Modi’s replies to the showcause notices weren’t acceptable to the BCCI, and he subsequently left for England, citing security fears in India. He was officially sacked in September 2010.
When and on what grounds did the BCCI finally ban Modi?
The BCCI set up a disciplinary committee, comprising Arun Jaitley and Jyotiraditya Scindia, in July 2010 to look into Modi’s alleged improprieties. They conducted numerous hearings over a three-year period — none of them was attended by Modi. In July 2013, they submitted a 134-page report in which they found Modi guilty on eight counts, “including financial irregularities, indiscipline and actions detrimental to the interest of the BCCI”. On September 25, 2013, Modi was banned from the BCCI for life in a unanimous verdict during a special general meeting that lasted less than half an hour.
Why was Modi’s passport revoked and a Blue Corner notice issued against him?
On March 4, 2011, the Mumbai Regional Passport Office revoked Modi’s passport after being pressed to do so by the Enforcement Directorate, which had already got a Blue Corner notice issued against him for his alleged involvement in “serious contraventions of the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act in connection with the IPL”. Modi was suspected to have acquired substantial foreign exchange worth crores of rupees outside India by allegedly misusing his position as IPL chairman. Many of the charges involved the hosting of the IPL in South Africa — Modi announced the shift virtually at the last minute after the UPA government, with P Chidambaram as home minister, refused to provide security for the league citing the assembly elections of 2009. He was also accused of investing in some IPL franchises through companies based outside India. Moreover, Modi had failed to appear for questioning before the ED.
How was Modi able to travel out of the United Kingdom?
On August 27, 2014, Lalit Modi’s passport was restored by the Delhi High Court. As is known now, it was in the same month that Keith Vaz, an influential Indian-origin British MP, asked UK Visas and Immigration head Sarah Rapson to expedite Modi’s travel documents, saying External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had told him that India had no objections to being allowed to travel. At the time, Vaz was the chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee. Since getting his travel documents reinstated, Modi visited Portugal where his wife was reportedly receiving treatment for cancer and a number of countries around Europe, posting pictures of his visits on social media platforms.
How did Modi manage to remain in the news?
He regularly appeared on television shows and used his Twitter handle to attack high-profile opponents such as N Srinivasan, Arun Jaitley and Rajeev Shukla. He also backed Bihar Cricket Association secretary Aditya Verma to keep Srinivasan out of the BCCI. Verma’s petition in court ensured that Srinivasan couldn’t contest the BCCI president’s post.
What is the cat-and-mouse game between BCCI and Modi?
The BCCI, under Srinivasan, hired a UK-based agency to track Modi as there were fears that he was attempting to hack their official emails and leak them to the press. Incidentally, Srinivasan later came under fire from the new BCCI regime for having allegedly paying Rs 14 crore to the agency from the board’s coffers.
Can Modi return to India or be reinstated in the BCCI?
Modi is expected to be detained and questioned by the Enforcement Directorate if he enters the country. If it is established that Lalit Modi has broken laws, further action can be taken. The former IPL chief is still known to have backers within Indian cricket circles, including former BCCI presidents Sharad Pawar and Shashank Manohar. Only last month, Modi was alleged to have been the brain behind an Essel-group initiative to launch a rebel body for the governance of world cricket. He has, however, denied being a part of it.
‘Leave to remain’ in UK
His “leave to enter or remain” was valid, although his Indian passport had been cancelled by the government. Technically, Modi did not need an Indian passport to remain in the UK, since British immigration laws say that the leave to enter or remain stays valid and does not expire, even if the Indian passport is cancelled. According to the UK’s immigration laws, one can stay in the UK — and not go out of the country — if one has legally challenged the decision to cancel the passport. So, for the time the matter is sub-juice, one can stay in the country under the provision of “leave to remain”. Such “leave to enter or remain” is granted to investors, entrepreneurs and business persons in a bid to attract investments in the country, and is mostly restricted to people with high net-worth individuals.
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