Lalit Modi was found guilty of favouring Adani Group in 2010, says a report in Indian Express.
According to the report, Arun Jaitley led committee, which included Jyotiraditya Scindia and Chirayu Amin, had submitted a report to the BCCI holding Lalit Modi guilty of indulging in ‘bid-rigging’ and favouring Adani Group and Videocon during the IPL franchise bidding process in 2010.
The panel blamed Modi for introducing two ‘unreasonable’ clauses that restricted the number of bidders and he did so without the approval of the IPL Governing Council.
According to these two additional clauses, not part of the original draft approved by IPL’s GC, the potential bidders were required to have a net worth of US $ 1 billion and give bank guarantee of Rs 460 crore.
Sahara and Dainik Jagran reportedly complained and the BCCI decided to cancel the tender also because it had only received only two tenders.
The report said, “While incorporating such conditions, Modi did not seek the approval of the Governing Council . The object of such unreasonable conditions was to exclude healthy competition and favour two bidders which is evident from the fact that only two bids were received pursuant to the ITT.”
The Adani Group’s relationship with Gujarat Cricket association has been well known. It’s been a commercial partner of GCA even when it was headed Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2010. The BJP president Amit Shah replaced him in 2014 after the Modi’s election as India’s prime minister.