MUMBAI: IPL Czar Mr Lalit Modi was on Monday dethroned in a swift counter-attack by the BCCI which accused him of rigging bids for teams and a number of other serious financial irregularities during his three-year reign as IPL chairman.

Suspended from his high-profile position in the middle of the night, ironically minutes after his third successful IPL concluded here, Mr Modi was on Monday morning replaced as interim chairman by a virtual unknown, businessman Mr Chirayu Amin one of the vice-presidents of BCCI.
However, just hours after the suspension, Mr Modi hit back at his detractors and claimed that he still is the head of the Twenty20 league as he has been suspended and not sacked. Mr Modi sent out a strong reply through his tweet which said, “Thank you all for your message of support. It is really appreciated. I am still chairman of IPL. Just suspended. Wait, we have just begun.”
The suspension pre-empted 46-year-old Mr Modi’s last-ditch attempt to outmanouvre his detractors by announcing on Sunday night that he would chair Monday’s meeting of the 14-member IPL governing council that was to decide his fate. The suspension having been communicated to him through e-mail ensured his absence.
The BCCI bosses then met at the board’s headquarters here for 90 minutes after which they announced that Mr Modi had been given 15 days time to respond to charges such as irregularities in the initial bids of Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab and rigging the bids of the two new franchises Kochi and Pune.
Other charges include irregularities in the broadcast deal, irregularities in the Internet deal and his behavioural pattern.
Addressing a press conference after the meeting, the BCCI president, Mr Shashank Manohar gave a clean chit to the Union minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, saying there is no involvement of any of his relatives either in the present or the initial bids.
He ruled out any political interference in the functioning of the BCCI saying as far he was concerned nobody can change his decisions.
At the meeting, a three-member committee of former players— Sunil Gavaskar, M A K Pataudi and Ravi Shastri — was appointed to discuss the modalities of withholding three foreign and four Indian players after discussing the issue with franchises.
Mr Manohar said many important documents were missing from the IPL and BCCI offices.
“Many of the records are missing. The IT is asking for documents. We don’t have them. We have asked BCCI CAO Prof Ratnakar Shetty to look into the missing records and papers,” he said.
Attacking Mr Modi, he referred to the former IPL chairman’s statement that the entire world knew about the IPL affairs but said even the members of the governing council were not aware of matters.
He cited the example of Rajasthan Royals franchise of the Jaipur IPL team in which shares of two persons are sold and transferred to certain individuals and certain companies.
“There is a company called Tresco and Blue Water... nobody knows what is Blue Water and what is Tresco and all these things. I did not find in the shareholders register the name of Raj Kundra or Shilpa Shetty who claim to be the stakeholders,” Mr Manohar said
As regards Kings XI Punjab, Mr Manohar said the bids were given in the name of a company and was signed by Preity Zinta who did not hold a single share in that company when the bid was given.
He also referred to registration of a company in Britain four months after which its bid was accepted. The company Emerging Media is a co-owner of the Rajasthan Royals.
“We are asking Modi, how can he sign an agreement with A when the bid came from B. Modi made a statement that the entire world knows who the shareholders are but the fact is that not even the governing council members know about Rajasthan Royals. I did not find the names of Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra in the papers and they claim to be stakeholders,” he revealed.
For all the allegations against Mr Modi, Mr Manohar said if he manages to convince the board of his innocence in his reply, the inquiry proceedings against him would be dropped.
Meanwhile, the income-tax department has claimed to have found defaults in the payment of TDS returns by the IPL franchises to various service providers in its ongoing probe into the tournament’s finances.
The department in its initial probe has claimed to have found discrepancies by various IPL franchises under the Tax Deducted at Source category while making payments to cricket players, commentators, event managers and anchors among others.
The anomalies have been found in account books and payment documents which the department has taken during its operations in the IPL probe.
“The discrepancies have been found under the TDS payment categories. The inquiry is still on and once all the franchises are scrutinised, they will be sent notices,” a senior I-T official said.