Mumbai court issues non-bailable warrant against Lalit Modi

Warrant to be sent to Ministry of External Affairs, which in turn will send it to UK

A special court on prevention of money laundering on Wednesday issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against former Indian Premier League (IPL) boss Lalit Modi after a plea by the Enforcement Directorate.

“Your (ED’s) application is allowed,” said Special Judge P R Bhavake while issuing the non-bailable arrest warrant (NBW) here.

The ED had moved the special court last week seeking the warrant against Modi after he failed to respond to summons.

According to ED sources, this warrant would be forwarded to the Ministry of External Affairs which would send it to the United Kingdom. Modi left the country shortly after the ED began a probe against him in 2009.

Issue of warrant
However, getting the warrant was not easy for the probe agency as the judge first questioned ED’s delay in seeking it and later raised the jurisdictional issue too. The court also wanted to know why the agency was not arresting Modi and had sought the non-bailable warrant, and whether a warrant can be issued during investigation.

Last month, the court had issued letters rogatory (LR) to Singapore and Mauritius seeking assistance in the case.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had registered a first information report in Chennai against Modi in 2010 with regard to a deal between MSM Singapore (which owns Sony channel) and WSG media, a sports marketing and event management company.

In 2008, BCCI awarded 10-year media rights to WSG for $918 million. WSG then entered into a deal with MSM to make Sony the official broadcaster. The contract was replaced later with a nine-year deal where MSM paid $1.63 billion.

In 2009, the ED started a probe under the Foreign Exchange Management Act to investigate allegations that payment of Rs 425 crore as facilitation fees by MSM Singapore to WSG Mauritius was made in an unauthorised manner.

On Tuesday, ED’s lawyer Hiten Venegoankar said as Modi was not available in India, an NBW should be issued. Modi had not complied with the summons issued to him since 2009, he had claimed.

The judge had asked if Modi was an accused before the court, as ED had not filed a chargesheet against him. For issuance of NBW, the person concerned should be an accused before the court, judge Bhavake had said.

The ED lawyer said the case was at the pre-investigation stage and the Supreme Court had said in a previous ruling that NBW can be issued during investigation.