Lalit Modi's passport revoked

Mar 04, 2011 |

PTI via AFP

Tags:

New Delhi: Indian authorities on Friday revoked the passport of former Indian Premier League supremo Lalit Modi, six months after he was ousted from running the lucrative tournament over graft allegations.

Modi, who now lives in London, faces criminal charges including false accounting, and accusations by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that more than 106 million dollars were misappropriated during IPL events.

His passport was revoked in a government bid to force him to return to India over charges related to alleged foreign exchange violations, without further explaining the authorities' plans.

Modi founded the IPL in 2008 and his brash style came to personify the event, which revolutionised cricket with a money-spinning blend of international star players, Twenty20 matches and Bollywood glamour.

But the annual tournament was soon dogged by allegations of massive corporate corruption, money-laundering and tax evasion, as well as secret deals to hide teams' real owners and even links to India's criminal underworld.

Modi has consistently denied all accusations made against him and has vowed to fight to clear his name, saying he is available for questioning in Britain but will not return to India. He lashed out on Friday over the revoking of his passport, saying on Twitter "mere allegations, investigation agencies have come up with zilch."

His lawyer Mehmood Abdi told reporters the decision was "very strange and shocking."

Modi says he lives in London, surrounded by bodyguards, as his life is in danger from Mumbai-based gangsters linked to illegal gambling.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/61219" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-fdbeeab3c64484740a51b575e4b0a5aa" value="form-fdbeeab3c64484740a51b575e4b0a5aa" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80748256" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>