MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has slapped a penalty of over Rs 121 crore on the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and its former top officials for alleged violation of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) during 2009 edition of the Indian Premear League (IPL) in South Africa.
Under FEMA, BCCI should have taken Reserve Bank of India (RBI) permission before transferring the money. However, it has been found that BCCI had neither informed nor taken permission from RBI for the transaction, an ED official said.
Along with the BCCI, its former chief N Srinivasan, former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, former BCCI treasurer M P Pandove and the State Bank of Travancore have been slapped with penalty.
While the BCCI is levied with a penalty of Rs 82.66 crore, for Srinivasan the amount is Rs 11.53 crore. Lalit Modi M P Pandove and the State Bank of Travancore are slapped with penalties worth Rs 10.65 crore, Rs 9.72 crore and Rs 7 crore respectively, the order released by a special director of the ED here on Thursday has stated.
The ED has been investigating the case for the alleged flaunting of FEMA in transferring over Rs 243 crore out of the country to host the 2009 edition of Indian Premier League in South Africa.
The FEMA order, where total penalty amount was Rs 121.56 crore, states that the transfer of funds was in alleged violation of the RBI guidelines meant for transferring funds abroad, ED officials have said adding that the penalty is to be deposited with the government exchequer within 45 days.
The directorate had launched an investigation against the BCCI and its top officials for alleged foreign exchange violations over the sports body “illegally routing” foreign exchange worth crores of rupees after shifting the IPL to South Africa that year due to elections.
The case is being investigated since 2009 wherein the accused have been disputing over who should be held responsible for financial decisions of the BCCI. While former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi had been under the ED lens in the case since beginning, his demand for cross examination of top BCCI officials in the case was accepted by the Bombay High Court recently. The BCCI had denied any wrongdoing in the case.