Enforcement Directorate wanted to quiz Lalit Modi in UK, request was turned down 'due to legal hurdles'

NEW DELHI: Months before external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj recommended ex-IPL commissioner Lalit Modi for travel documents on "humanitarian grounds", the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had moved a proposal to question Modi in the United Kingdom, but it was turned down due to "legal constraints". ED wanted to question Modi for the alleged contravention of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) in connection with the 2010 IPL scandal. The regional passport Office (RPO) Mumbai had revoked Modi’s passport after he failed to appear before the ED in response to summons issued by the agency in 2011.

Modi, through his counsel, challenged the orders issued by the RPO in 2011. At the conclusion of the first hearing before the single bench of Delhi High Court, the court ruled in favour of the government. Modi’s counsel then challenged the HC order. In January 2014, ED wrote to the British authorities through external affairs ministry, seeking details of Modi’s whereabouts. But the British authorities said details of his status could not be disclosed because of data-protection laws. The request to examine Modi in the UK was turned down due to legal hurdles, as per a top ED official. When contacted Modi’s counsel, Mehmood Abdi, refused to comment.

In August 2014, the Delhi HC set aside the 2011 order revoking the passport and held that the passport office should not have taken into account the allegations of FEMA violations since the ED was looking into the case. The RPO order said the passport was being revoked in "public interest".