The Enforcement Directorate has initiated the process of getting former IPL chief Lalit Modi’s passport revoked. The agency is also examining the charges made in the BCCI’s FIR over the alleged misappropriation of around `470 crores by Mr Modi.
ED sources said the Mumbai passport office had been asked to get Mr Modi’s passport revoked. Mr Modi, who is in London, has said he was available for questioning in London or through video-conferencing. The ED says sending a team abroad is not possible.
The ED, which has been examining alleged foreign exchange violations by Mr Modi, has issued several summons to him in the past few months, but he did not reply to these, the sources said. It was after that the move to revoke his passport was initiated.
“ED officials probing IPL irregularities may question certain foreign players over FEMA violations by IPL organisers,” the sources said. The ED believes some foreign players helped team owners and organisers to convert black money into white.
Officials are also scrutinising the accounts of 96 IPL sponsor companies over alleged FEMA violations. Central revenue officials have collected bank account documents of these companies from the BCCI’s Mumbai headquarters.