Mumbai: Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Monday said he was not briefed by Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria about his meeting with tainted ex-IPL boss Lalit Modi last year in London, when the Congress-NCP government headed by him was in power.
"I was not aware of Maria's visit to London and his meeting with Lalit Modi. Such trips are cleared at the level of Home Minister. I wasn't briefed about it," Chavan told PTI.
Adding yet another dimension to controversies around Lalit Modi, pictures of Maria meeting the ex-IPL boss surfaced last week. Maria later admitted that he had met Modi in London in 2014 at the insistence of the latter's lawyer.
According to Maria, who came out with a statement after news channels flashed a photo of the former IPL commissioner and him, during the meeting that lasted 15 to 20 minutes, Lalit Modi sought the help of Mumbai police in view of "threat" to his life by the underworld in London. He added that he had apprised the then Home Minister (late R R Patil of NCP) about the meeting soon after returning from London.
State Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday asked Maria to provide "information" on his statement regarding his meeting with Lalit Modi, stating that based on that the government would decide further course of action.
Maharashtra's Minister of State for Home Ranjit Patil had earlier said that repeated requests from Lalit Modi cannot be an "excuse" to meet him and an inquiry will be conducted into what "compelled" Maria to meet Modi.
"As far as what we know till now, on his repeated insistence, Maria met Lalit Modi in London. Now we will have to go through records and examine that what compelled Maria to meet him despite knowing there is so much criticism surrounding him. Insistence cannot be an excuse," Patil said.
Modi, the first Commissioner of Indian Premier League, and others are facing probe by Enforcement Directorate in the alleged forex violation cases. Modi has been embroiled in a row after it came to light that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had facilitated travel documents for him in London and that Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje had reportedly favoured Modi's immigration plea in a London court.
