Former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi has petitioned the Bombay High Court to order the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to provide him the documents the investigating agency is relying on in a foreign exchange violation case. The case relates to the 2009 IPL tournament that was held in South Africa.
On July 20, 2011, the ED had issued a show-cause notice to Modi under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) regarding a bank account opened in South Africa by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the IPL organising committee, ahead of the event. According to the ED, $5 crore were transferred to the bank account.
In March this year, the ED issued another notice to Modi initiating adjudication proceedings against him and it summoned him for a hearing on April 1. Pursuant to the notice, Modi’s lawyer appeared before the ED and sought a copy of the documents relied on by the agency.
Initially, the ED had said that it would give the documents. However, it subsequently refused to do so. Following this, Modi filed the petition.
The petition states that “Since the show-cause notice was issued, the petitioner’s solicitors have been writing letters to the ED seeking access to the documents relied upon for issuance of notice and adjudication proceedings. On September 22, 2011 the agency said documents would be given, but on December 16 the agency refused saying the documents pertaining to Modi have been attached with the notice.”
Modi has asked the court that the ED be directed to allow him to inspect the documents. He has also asked that the ED’s order of December 2011 be set aside. “Alternatively, the ED’s show-cause notice should be quashed,” the petition says.
A division bench of chief justice Mohit Shah and justice MS Sanklecha has scheduled the petition for hearing on August 22.
Last week, the division bench had granted relief to Shashank Manohar, former president of the BCCI, by setting aside and quashing the adjudication notice on the foreign exchange matter issued to him by the ED.
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