Mumbai court issues non-bailable warrant against Modi

A Mumbai court has issued a non-bailable warrant against former IPL chairman Lalit Modi in an IPL-related money-laundering case being investigated by India's Enforcement Directorate, a government agency responsible for prosecuting economic offences. The warrant could pave the way for the ED to request a red-corner notice by Interpol against him, with the aim of securing his extradition from the UK, where he currently lives, to India.

The sessions court judge PR Bhavake said it was a fit case to issue a warrant as Modi had not co-operated with the agency despite being summoned three times for the investigation. The ED said it had sent multiple summons since July 3 to Modi for its investigation without any response. The deadline for Modi's personal appearance as stated by the summons expired on July 19.

The case against Modi, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002, was filed by the BCCI against him in 2010. It relates to the handling of IPL broadcast rights in 2009 and his role in the deal between the two broadcasters - Multi Screen Media and World Sports Group (Mauritius) - is under investigation.

In 2008, the BCCI sold the IPL's global television rights to World Sport Group India for a period of ten years, while the broadcast rights in India were awarded to MSM for a period of five years.

In March 2009, the BCCI terminated its agreement with MSM on account of various breaches and within a few hours of the termination, granted global and Indian broadcast rights for 2009 to 2017 to World Sport Group Mauritius which had the same directors as WSG India.

A fresh agreement with WSG Mauritius was entered into, under which WSG Mauritius had 72 hours to find a broadcast partner, failing which the rights would revert to the BCCI. It was also expected to pay the BCCI Rs 112.5 crores as a signing fee - a sum the BCCI contended it never received. When WSG Mauritius failed to get a partner, it agreed the rights would come back to the BCCI but WSG India would retain the global rights (excluding Indian subcontinent) till 2017.

The BCCI then contended that MSM had paid WSG Mauritius a facilitation fee of $80 million [Rs 425 crore] to cut a deal that would ensure the India rights came back to MSM. According to the BCCI, this was done with the knowledge and active participation of Modi. In June 2010, the BCCI terminated all IPL media license agreements with WSG Mauritius over the issue of the facilitation fee.

In its petition, the ED - which called Modi a "potential accused" - said that he "was not authorized to terminate the media rights contract with …MSM" and didn't follow a tender process or obtain approval from the IPL governing council for signing the deal with WSG Mauritius.