The enforcement directorate has initiated a move to revoke the passport of Lalit Modi, as part of a blue alert issued against the disgraced poster boy of T20 cricket, reports Delhi tabloid Mail Today.
This comes after the Look Out Circular issued against him. In a letter to the regional passport office in Mumbai, ED officials have asked for the passport of the suspended IPL chairman to be impounded on charges of not responding to repeated summons to appear in a Foreign Exchange Management Act ( FEMA) case investigation.A blue alert is an international alert to law enforcement agencies to obtain information about the whereabouts of a person.
The alert was issued to the immigration authorities on October 1 to detain Modi if he was spotted at airports. He failed to respond to five summons issued against him in the last six months, said a senior ED officer.
The ED is conducting a probe against Modi on allegations of laundering foreign exchange worth hundreds of crores of rupees earned in the T20 premier league. The money was transferred to foreign countries without the approval of the Reserve Bank of India. Modi is suspected to have re-routed laundered money back into the cricket league. The ED probe has hit a wall because of Modi's non-cooperation.
Modi, now in London, refuses to come to India, claiming that he faces a life threat in the country. Saying that he was extending full cooperation to the ED, Modi is reported to have described the alert as “ highly improper and a serious interference with my personal liberty”.
In a letter to the ED, he is reported to have said that he was open to answering questions through video conferencing, even offering to fly the investigating officers to London at his own expense.“ We had conveyed to Modi's lawyer that we would provide full security to him, but he continues to evade the probe,” said an ED official.
The income- tax department and a three- member disciplinary panel of the Board of Control for Cricket in India is conducting a probe into the alleged Indian Premier League rip- off. Modi faces charges of financial irregularities, rigging bids, proxy holdings and receiving kickbacks in broadcast deals of the IPL.
