Mumbai: "These are all delaying tactics," said a senior BCCI official minutes after the disciplinary committee's second hearing in the Lalit Modi case concluded in New Delhi on Tuesday, reports Times of India.
The official was clearly at pains when he said: "They just want this to go on for as long as possible and delay the proceedings which are imminent."
He was referring to the arguments that went on for close to four hours between the disciplinary committee members and the legal experts representing Modi.
In the end, another date - August 1 - was set for the hearing to resume. As reported by TOI, Modi was not present at the hearing but has given his consent to being available through a video conference at the next hearing.
Modi's constituted attorney Mehmood M Abdi, accompanied by lawyers Venkatesh Dhond and SS Hora, sat facing the disciplinary committee members Chirayu Amin, Arun Jaitley and Jyotiraditya Scindia and the meeting that began around 6.30 pm went on almost till 10 pm.
Once the hearing began, Modi's lawyers stuck to the same point that they've been making ever since the committee was set up, that an independent inquiry panel should be reconstituted.
On Tuesday, they only concentrated on Jaitley's presence in the committee, leaving Amin aside and said that the BCCI vice president, also a senior BJP leader, has already voiced his opinion against Modi in the IPL governing council meeting.
"They (Modi's lawyers) argued that since Jaitley has already spoken in the negative about Modi, he could have bias against them and therefore should seek recusal," a source in the know of developments, told TOI.
Interestingly, BCCI secretary N Srinivasan - who is not a member of the disciplinary committee - was also present in the room, an issue that the Modi camp is likely to raise in the next hearing, given their argument since the beginning that Srinivasan holds a bias against Modi.
