21 December,2010 06:47 AM IST | | J Dey
Issue was brought up in meeting of Joint Parliamentary Committee probing financial irregularities during league; measures to prevent match fixing were also discussed
THE possibility of well-known socialites being involved in hawala transactions during the Indian Premier League (IPL) was thrown up during a meeting of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probing the issue yesterday.
An Enforcement Directorate official said new rules are being formulated to trail the inflow and outflow of black money from the country during IPL matches
Senior Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials said measures to prevent the active involvement of match-fixing syndicates during next year's IPL were also discussed in the meeting.
A recent Income Tax investigation has indicated a New Delhi-based socialite had been in constant touch with bookies during the IPL matches. Some of the operators had inside information on team selection and venues of BCCI and IPL matches.
The JPC has been finding ways to nail Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violators during the last few IPL tournaments.
Several franchisees had allegedly flouted foreign exchange norms and routed money to tax havens across the globe. FEMA violations have also allegedly taken place in payments made to overseas players by some franchisees.
Among those who attended the meeting in New Delhi were a former finance minister, senior ED officials and home ministry and finance ministry officials.
An ED official said new rules are being formulated to trail the inflow and outflow of black money from the country during IPL matches.
Sources said some of the leads collected by the ED and the CBI have been kept on hold as further investigation could lead to the names of some bigwigs tumbling out.
"Initial investigation has indicated that some socialites had been calling cricketers during the matches.
After scrutinising the phone records, we suspect that they may be acting at the behest of bookmakers," said a senior ED official.
A large number of calls have also been made to and received from Pakistan and Dubai the hub of gangster Dawood Ibrahim's betting empire.
Indian bookies too
"We are also probing some bookies in India after bookmakers in London pointed to the involvement of Indian kingpins in match fixing as well as hawala transactions," added the official.
The agencies are treading cautiously as they suspect their investigations could lead to some top bookmakers and politicians having links with Pakistani match-fixing syndicates.
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"We cannot rule out the possibility of them having links with Dawood too," the official said. Home Secretary G K Pillai refused to comment on the developments during the JPC meet.
