CHENNAI: Six days after being told by the Supreme Court to apologise or face perjury charges, the BCCI president has denied any wrongdoing on his part. Saying that he had not lied under oath, Anurag Thakur added he shouldn’t be subjected to such a charge.
Having kept quiet since December 15, when the court came down heavily on him and said that he had lied about asking the ICC chairman for a letter on the implication of having a CAG representative in the BCCI governing body, Thakur broke his silence on this in Jaipur.
“No question of perjury. I did not lie to the court,” Thakur was quoted as saying by a news agency. “If you want to escape perjury charges, you ought to apologise... Once we pronounce the order, you will have no other place to go except jail,” the three-member special bench had said on December 15.
While it’s not clear at this stage if Thakur is contemplating an apology, punishment for perjury or lying to court under oath can be up to 10 years in prison. Legal experts have said that “in such cases”, the accused can sometimes get away with an apology.
In Jaipur, Thakur reiterated that the objection of members against a handful of Lodha panel recommendations is preventing the BCCI from implementing them in full. It can be noted that except for three, other BCCI units have said they are against some crucial points.
“More than 85 per cent of recommendations have been implemented. But members do not agree to three-four recommendations, as they are not practical. We wanted to convey this, but the committee is not giving us time for the last two months,” Thakur was quoted as saying.
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