File photo: Lalit Modi (Picture credit: ANI)
NEW DELHI: Former Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Lalit Modi on Wednesday said he plans to return to India by the end of this year or early next year after securing major legal relief from the Appellate Tribunal under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act (SAFEMA) in the 2009 IPL South Africa FEMA case.Speaking a day after the tribunal’s verdict, Lalit said he felt vindicated after fighting the case for 16 years and claimed the ruling had established the truth behind his actions during the 2009 IPL season.”I’m really happy with the verdict yesterday. It’s really been a great day. Sixteen years I have fought and whatever I have been saying to the media and to everybody has finally emerged as the truth,” he said.”I’m really happy that the tribunal has ruled in my favour. I was only concerned with the well-being of the IPL and nothing and nothing at all. That is the most dear to me.” He added that he now considers the legal battle over and is looking forward to returning to India.”Now that chapter is behind me, I’m going to move on in my life and I’m looking forward to coming back to India. I will come back probably end of this year or early next year. My daughter is due with my grandson in October and hopefully everything will be well and I’ll be back in India,” Lalit said.
Tribunal gives Lalit Modi major relief
The Appellate Tribunal under SAFEMA has granted significant relief to Lalit Modi and other appellants by setting aside most of the Enforcement Directorate’s findings and penalties in the long-running FEMA case linked to the 2009 IPL tournament in South Africa. The tribunal set aside the ED’s penalty order issued against Lalit and several others in the 15-year-old case related to foreign exchange transactions during the tournament.The case stemmed from the BCCI’s decision to shift the 2009 IPL season to South Africa because of security concerns arising from India’s general elections.The Enforcement Directorate had alleged that foreign exchange worth $49.86 million (over Rs 243 crore at current equivalent value) was transferred outside India without prior approval from the Reserve Bank of India.The ED issued FEMA show-cause notices in 2011 and penalty orders in 2018 against Lalit, former BCCI officials and others.They later challenged those orders before the SAFEMA Appellate Tribunal.
Tribunal rejects key allegations
The tribunal’s 105-page order, issued on July 16 by a division bench comprising Chairman Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Member Rajesh Malhotra, held that Lalit was “not in-charge of the affairs and otherwise he has been framed in the case without any material showing his responsibility.””The penalty imposed on Shri Lalit Modi is wholly erroneous is thus interfered,” the tribunal said.In a statement issued on Tuesday through his lawyer, Lalit had welcomed the verdict, saying it reaffirmed “the importance of due process, objective legal analysis and the principle that allegations must ultimately be tested against evidence and law”.The tribunal rejected the Enforcement Directorate’s central contention by holding that the principal foreign remittances related to IPL 2009 were current account transactions rather than capital account transactions, while also finding that Lalit was neither responsible for BCCI’s FEMA compliance nor vested with the financial authority alleged by the agency.
