Lalit Modi's counsel Mehmood Abdi termed as "non-transparent" the manner in which the two-member special disciplinary committee investigated the charges against the former IPL commissioner and submitted its findings to the BCCI.
"The Disciplinary Committee has supplied its report in the matter of enquiry proceedings against Lalit Modi to the BCCI. Only two members rather than all three - (Arun) Jaitley and (Jyotiraditya) Scindia have filed the enquiry report in a sealed cover. The manner of submitting the report has been utterly non-transparent," Abdi said in a statement.
The committee had on Tuesday submitted its report to the BCCI. The third member of the committee was BCCI president N Srinivasan, who has currently stepped aside after the IPL betting and match-fixing scandal broke out and his son-in-law was allegedly found to be involved.
However, Abdi claimed that Srinivasan was never the member of the committee.
"The third member, Mr Srinivasan, did not participate as he has "stepped aside" for the time being. This is also incredulous and appears to be playing to the media as if he has abstained when in fact Srinivasan was never the member of the committee rather it is Mr Chirayu Amin who is the third member," he said.
Abdi accused the committee of violating the principles of natural justice by not providing the copy of the report to his client.
"Surprisingly, no copy of such report has been supplied to us. This is another instance of violation of principles of natural justice by the Committee.
"We are well within our rights to have the copy of the enquiry report. The enquiry report cannot be claimed to be a confidential document qua us. The sealed cover procedure is not even contemplated in BCCI by-laws. We would therefore request you to forthwith supply the copy of the enquiry report," Abdi added.
It has been learnt that Scindia and Jaitley have filed an exhaustive report which is close to 500 pages. The report will be placed before the BCCI working committee that is scheduled to meet at Kolkata on July 28.
Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images
