15 May : Suspended IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi on Saturday responded to the first showcause notice served to him for alleged financial irregularities with a staggering 12,000-page reply, which according to his lawyers, will leave BCCI with no choice but to re-instate him in the post.
Modi, who had got an extension of five days from May 10 deadline, submitted his reply through his lawyers, who brought in the papers in six cartons amidst the media frenzy at the Cricket Centre, the Board’s headquarters in Mumbai.
BCCI Chief Administrative Officer Ratnakar Shetty received the papers and documents on behalf of the Board and said all the concerned people will be given the copies.
Modi’s lawyers Mehmood Abdi talked with the waiting media for close to 30 minutes and said the reply had “sufficiently and fully addressed” all the allegations against his client.
He expressed confidence that BCCI would drop the showcause and re-instate Modi as IPL Chairman after going through the voluminous reply.
“We have given all clarification, nothing is left from our side, except that the showcause notice must be dropped immediately. All the allegations have been sufficiently and fully addressed,” Abdi told reporters.
Modi’s lawyer said the BCCI will not find it difficult to read and scrutinise the voluminous reply since its President was himself a lawyer.
“According to me, the suspension should be revoked today and Mr Modi should be reinstated as IPL Commissioner because the BCCI President is a renowned lawyer and has the habit of reading 1,000 pages in a minute. So, I feel he should not take much time in reading our reply”.
“There is no scope for BCCI to keep their charges alive now. I am 100 per cent confident that BCCI President will be satisfied to drop all the charges against Mr Modi”.
“I feel it has been painful for Mr Modi to hear that he has brought disrepute to the game based on oral allegations. Just few days earlier he was the hero. He was the subject matter of studies in universities and in one moment he was turned into a fall guy,” he said.
