Modi''s counsel slams BCCI reply to Parliamentary Committee

Mumbai, Jan 13 (PTI) Lalit Modi''s legal counsel todayslammed top Cricket Board officials for squarely blaming thesacked IPL Commissioner for all IPL-related queries at ameeting with a Parliamentary Committee members by termingtheir stand as "irresponsible and unsustainable".

"The response to the queries by certain senior BCCIofficials are irresponsible and unbecoming of their positions.

The stand taken by the BCCI officials that Lalit Modi tookthem for a ride is too simplistic, sweeping and unsustainableto reason and logic," said Modi''s counsel Mehmood Abdi in astatement today.

Under fire over allegations of foreign exchangeviolations in IPL, BCCI''s top officials had blamed sackedcommissioner Modi for "mistakes" as they told theParliamentary Standing Committee on Finance yesterday thatthey had given approvals at his behest in "good faith".

BCCI president Shashank Manohar, secretary N Srinivasanand IPL chairman Chirayu Amin were quizzed by theParliamentary Committee for about two-and-a-half hours aboutthe alleged FEMA violations.

"All these persons are adult individuals who ought topossess common prudence to be hoodwinked by Lalit Modi. Theirconduct puts a question mark on their worthiness to hold suchhigh office," Abdi said.

"The role and powers of office bearers (of BCCI) are welldefined and at no point in time Lalit Modi was vested with anypower to conduct financial functions. It was BCCI''s secretaryand treasurer who had sanctioned the expenditure, settledpayments and signed financial instruments like checks etc," hesaid. (More) PTI SSR VKV SSC