Mumbai: IPL chief Lalit Modi was on Thursday questioned by a joint team of Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate officials, who are probing alleged financial irregularities by the cricket organisation and its franchises.
Officials of the two agencies questioned Modi at the upscale Four Seasons hotel in central Mumbai and later at his office in Nirlon House in Worli.
It is for a second time in less than 24 hours that Modi was questioned by the Income Tax department. Modi was questioned on April 15 about IPL bidding process and issues relating to franchisee owners.
On Wednesday night, tax officials had questioned him after its searching the premises of three entities associated with the hugely successful cricket entity.
Modi's questioning last night primarily focused on the broadcasting rights of IPL after it transpired that a "facilitation fee" of $ 80 million was paid by Multi-Screen Media to World Sports Group to reacquire the telecast rights of the league.
On Thursday, Modi was understood to have been asked questions about the payment of a portion of the facilitation fee by MSM to an offshore company of WSG in Mauritius, a tax haven, without paying income tax on the transaction in India, sources familiar with the development said.
According to Enforcement Directorate sources, the team picked up documents relating to the IPL franchisees from Modi's office at Four Seasons Hotel and later questioned him at his premises at Nirlon House.
Modi was also taken to the offices of Mumbai Indians, the IPL franchisee owned by industrialist Mukesh Ambani, at Nariman Point in south Mumbai.
IT officials had on Wednesday searched the offices of Multi-Screen Media, formerly Sony Entertainment Television, International Management Group and World Sports Group (WSG), all of whom are closely connected to the Lalit Modi-led IPL.
MSM is the telecasting agency of IPL, while WSG is its marketing arm. IMG is the organising agency of the IPL.
ED had registered a case against IPL under Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) to inquire into unauthorized transfer of funds from abroad.
The case was the first by Enforcement Directorate against IPL after it received preliminary information that funds from abroad might have come in without mandatory RBI permission, sources said.
The Enforcement Directorate was also contemplating registering a case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act to have access into the foreign accounts of those who had allegedly pumped slush money into the IPL from foreign shores, including tax havens like Mauritius and Cayman Islands.
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