Enforcement Directorate e-mails summons to Lalit Modi in money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has reportedly e-mailed a copy of its summons to former Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi.

The ED officials were quoted, as saying that a copy of the summons was sent to Modi after his lawyer Mehmood Abidi refused to accept summons and returned it on Tuesday.

The officials had forwarded the summons to Modi in a money-laundering case registered against him on Friday, seeking his presence at its office within three weeks.

The case relates to a 2008 deal between World Sports Group (WSG) and Multi Screen Media (MSM) for television rights of Indian Premier League (IPL) worth Rs 425 crores.

In 2008, the BCCI had awarded media rights for ten years to WSG for 918 million dollars. WSG entered into a deal with the MSM to make Sony the official broadcaster. The contract was replaced a year later with a nine-year deal where MSM paid 1.63 billion dollars.

The ED started a probe in 2009 under the Foreign Exchange Management Act to investigate whether payment of Rs 425 crores facilitation fee by MSM Singapore to WSG Mauritius was made illegally.