Mumbai: Breaking his silence after the controversy over his travel documents broke out, Lalit Modi on Monday pressed his legal team into action, which strongly disapproved the use of terms like “fugitive” for the former IPL administrator. Refusing to admit any blue corner notice served to former IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi by Interpol, his lawyer Mahmood M. Abdi tried to defend the former from the on going controversy.
The lawyer even objected that his client was being called an offender despite no court has declared him so. “There is no blue-corner notice against Lalit Modi. Non-issues have been blown out of proportion. A section of media has fabricated stories about the Interpol notice,” Abdi said in a press conference held on Monday evening.
The lawyer even disapproved of terms used by media like ‘fugitive’ and ‘offender’ to describe Mr Modi. “Which court has decided that Lalit Modi as offender and fugitive? What crime has he done? He stays within knowledge of everyone in the United Kingdom by following due process of UK immigration laws,” he said.
Shielding Lalit Modi, the lawyer said that his client was hounded after he broke with Sunanda Pushkar, late wife of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor. Mr Abdi also tried to back External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj who remained at the Centre of the controversy for granting travel documents to the former former IPL commissioner to leave the United Kingdom. “She had done only her duty. How cold some one be blamed for intervening on humanitarian grounds. She tried to help an Indian outside the country,” he said.
Trying to blame Congress for revoking Modi’s passport, the lawyer said the case was argued during the UPA’s period and hence there is no conflict of interest though the final order that came after the Government changed. “Why the union government (then) was after him to revoke the passport when he was in London? The entire passport argument in the Supreme Court was held in the UPA period. The order was reserved that came after the government changed. Politically, some people are trying to destabilise the (BJP) government,” he added.
Revealing that his client was threatened by the underworld, Abdi said an RTI reply received on June 2010 mentioned about Dawood Ibrahim group was monitoring the latter. “The RTI said that Dawood Ibrahim’s gangsters were behind IPL Commissioner. They tried to target Modi’s wife and daughter at Bangkok but could not succeeded,” the lawyer said.
Meanwhile, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “protecting” Lalit Modi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday demanded sacking of Sushma Swaraj for helping the erstwhile cricket administrator with his travels. “I would not like to demand Ms Swaraj’s resignation on the issue. Instead, I demand the PM to sack her”, Mr Gandhi told reporters in Chhattisgarh.
