Modi: Donation trouble

Jaipur, Feb. 15: Indian Premier League boss Lalit Modi’s troubles grew today when a police complaint accused him of fraud, saying a promised Rs 6-crore donation had never reached the chief minister’s relief fund.

Modi now faces several lawsuits relating to fraud and misappropriation, and last week obtained anticipatory bail from Bombay High Court in a forgery case.

The FIR lodged by an NGO, Nagrik Morcha, at Jyoti Nagar police station here today says Modi had announced Rs 6 crore towards Jaipur’s May 13, 2008, blast victims.

“After the match between Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians on May 17, Modi had handed a cheque for Rs 6 crore to then chief minister Vasundhara Raje before the crowd at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium. But the cheque was never deposited,” Morcha state convener Suresh Mishra said.

Asked why the NGO had targeted Modi instead of Raje, Mishra — who lost the last Assembly election on a Congress ticket — only said that the promise had been made by Modi on the IPL’s behalf.

He alleged that it may have been a ploy to be able to stage the match. The Morcha had demanded that the match be cancelled or held for charity in the terror-ravaged city.

Mishra claimed the Morcha had tried to lodge an FIR earlier too but failed because of Modi’s proximity to the then BJP chief minister. “I do not understand this case. Why do you (government) get into this?” Raje had said.

Modi, also president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA), is under the scanner with the state’s new Congress government probing a lease deal between the association and Sawai Mansingh Stadium authorities.

Another FIR accuses Modi of buying land in Nagaur district using forged signatures in September 2004 so he could show permanent property in Rajasthan and become RCA president.

A third case, filed on January 20 by Samajwadi Party official Anil Shekhawat, who is also general secretary of the Jaipur District Cricket Association, accuses Modi of misusing Rs 22.80 lakh of the RCA’s money.

Modi, however, has recently received some good news from the courts, apart from the February 9 grant of anticipatory bail in the Nagaur case.

On February 11, Rajasthan High Court restored the original RCA constitution that gives the president absolute powers, staying the new statute adopted on January 30 by his rivals which vested all powers in the executive committee.