ED seeks Interpol notice against Lalit Modi

In fresh worry for former IPL chairman Lalit Modi, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sought an Interpol notice against him in connection with its probe in a money laundering case relating to alleged financial irregularities in the operations of various editions of the T-20 cricket tournament.

Officials said the agency's Mumbai office officialy moved for a 'Red Interpol notice' against Modi on the basis of a non-bailable warrant (NBW) issued recently by a special court in the western metropolis of the country.

The agency has sought the global notice, sources said, as domestic legal remedies to serve its earlier issued Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) notice on Modi had not met with any success even as the ED alleged that Modi did not cooperate with it in this probe till now.

The ED headquarters, sources said, later forwarded the legal request to the CBI head office here to get a notice issued through the latter's Interpol wing.

A CBI spokesperson said the request has been received this afternoon from the ED and it will be processed after due verification.

CBI is the nodal agency for Interpol related affairs in India. Modi is currently based in the United Kingdom.

The ED, sources said, has sought a 'Red notice' which is issued "to seek the location and arrest of wanted persons with a view to extradition or similar lawful action" in a criminal case probe.

Once the Red notice is sounded, the Interpol seeks to arrest the person concerned in any part of the world and notifies that country to take his or her custody for further action at their end.

ED had last month moved a special PMLA court in Mumbai seeking NBW against Modi after he did not respond to summons sent to him.

Sources said the agency is also mulling to seek extradition of Modi by sending a request in this regard to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) through the Home Ministry.

The agency is probing Modi, the Indian Premier League (IPL) and its executives under anti-money laundering laws under its criminal FIR registered in 2012 after taking cognisance of a cheating complaint filed by former BCCI chief N Srinivasan against Modi and half a dozen others with the Chennai police.

The ED subsequently invoked the PMLA along with section 420 (cheating) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC to probe if BCCI-IPL and the exchequer had been cheated in the award of telecast rights for the IPL in 2009.

It is also probing 16 foreign exchange violation cases vis-a-vis IPL, Modi and others and the most important one amongst these is that related to the media rights deal where the agency slapped show-cause notices against Modi and 13 others in February this year.

The ED, in its notice, has accused Modi of sending "fraud" emails and being a suspect beneficiary of Rs 125 crore illegal funds in connection with the Rs 425 deal for grant of media rights of the T-20 tournament in 2009.