I did no wrong: Lalit Modi

Sacked Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) administrator Lalit Modi on Thursday adopted a unique face-saving formula by dubbing the charges levelled against him as a ‘witch-hunt’ and saying he had done nothing to fear the law.

In a candid interview posted on YouTube, Modi said he never took any money for his job and instead had his expenses paid from his own pocket.

“When somebody turns around and says that they didn’t know about it it’s absolutely a false story…I mean everybody concerned from the governing council to the BCCI members, were very much present in the room, and in fact everybody was just happy at that point in time because we got eight bids,” he said.

“In fact you had my Vice Chairman Niranjan Shah who was questioned immediately after the auction and was asked if ‘Mr Modi’s relatives have bid’, he said ‘So what, there are no other bidders out there, and if he has bid he has put his own money in’.” he said.

“If it wasn’t friends and family that are coming to bid and come into […] they wouldn’t have had the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the first place,” he added.

The beleaguered former IPL chairman is charged of committing financial irregularities and is facing a probe by Enforcement Directorate, BCCI Disciplinary Committee and the Chennai Police.

“All costs that are related to my staying in a hotel or travelling or cars, are all mine, you know, BCCI may have provided a car here or there in a particular city, but they all charge it back to me,” he said while justifying his lavish lifestyle.

Saying that “it just happened,” he asserted that he had never aimed to hurt Congress Party member Shashi Tharoor, who was embroiled in a bitter controversy over the Kochi IPL team after a tweet by Modi.

On returning to India, he said that he was informed by Indian authorities and his own sources that there was still a threat looming over his life. He maintained that he was not hiding and definitely not avoiding the questioning by the law enforcement agencies.