Income Tax completes surveys at Pune Warriors, Royal Challengers offices: Top 10 developments

The Income Tax officials have impounded documents relating to buying ofplayers and franchise expenses on the players. They have also copied thecomputer hard discs. They will now compare these documents with their books ofaccounts and banks statements.

The surveys were reportedly conducted at the offices of Sahara India, ownersof the Pune Warriors, at the Sahara Star hotel in Mumbai. RCB offices inBangalore have also been reportedly surveyed. A survey is a preliminary stepbefore an investigation.

Sahara India, which owns the Pune Warriors, has denied that there has beenany such I-T survey. The company said its IPL team has no office in Pune or inMumbai.

The Royal Challengers Bangalore confirmed that the I-T department had madean enquiry, but said there had been no raids at their offices. The Chennai I-Tteam is helping in the Bangalore survey.

IPL chairman and central minister Rajiv Shukla yesterday refused to commentsaying this was between the I-T department and Sahara India.

The surveys come soon after Sports Minister Ajay Maken told the Parliamentthat his ministry had recently asked the Finance Ministry to order aninvestigation into allegations of black money in thr IPL. This after a TVchannel aired what it called a sting operation purportedly showing several IPLplayers on tape discussing spot-fixing and talking about being paid byfranchises in black over and above the amount fixed by the BCCI.

In swift action after the TV sting operation, the Board of Control forCricket in India (BCCI) had suspended five cricketers allegedly caught on tape.One of them Mohnish Mishra, plays for the Pune Warriors. On tape, Mohnishpurportedly talked about being paid in cash by his franchise.

After the tapes aired, Sahara India suspended Mohnish from the PuneWarriors. The company later released what it said was a letter from MohnishMishra clarifying that he had made those statements "casually" andthat he had not been paid in cash by the franchise. "We once againreiterate that Sahara has never paid any amount in cash or otherwise to MohnishMishra or any other player, over and above the maximum amount permissible byBCCI for any such player and neither do we believe in this practice of givingblack money," Pune Warriors owner Sushanto Roy had said in a pressrelease.

The issue was raised in Parliament by former cricketer Kirti Azad of theBJP, who made a strong pitch for a special audit by independent people into theconduct of the BCCI and other concerned sports organisations which wereregistered. Mr Azad was particularly critical of the IPL and even held a dharnaat Jantar Mantar in Delhi.

Mr Azad's vocal protests were given fuel by more controversy hitting theIPL soon after the sting operation. First, the molestation case in which RoyalChallengers Bangalore player Luke Pomersbach was accused of molesting a USwoman, and then Pune Warriors players Rahul Sharma and Wayne Parnell beingdetained at a rave party in Mumbai.