File Photo of Vasundhara Raje with the then IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi.
A generous investment by disgraced cricket tycoon Lalit Modi in a firm owned by the son of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje exhibits money-laundering behaviour, said sources in the Enforcement Directorate to NDTV today on condition of anonymity.
However, they cited a technicality to justify the absence of an investigation into this aspect of the 13-crore deal. "The agency can't probe money-laundering unless another agency registers the case," said the sources in the Enforcement Directorate, which is based in the Finance Ministry. They said their probe is limited so far to examining the deal for potential violations of foreign exchange laws.
Between 2008 and 2010, Mr Modi, who is wanted in India in a swarm of financial crime cases, paid just over Rs 96,000 per share for more than 900 shares in a company owned by Mrs Raje's son, law-maker Dushyant Singh. The sweetness of the deal is apparent from the fact that in his income tax returns, Mr Singh has said his shares in the same firm are worth just Rs 10 each. Mr Modi's firm also purveyed a three-crore loan without any guarantees to Mr Singh's company.
Mrs Raje's party, the BJP, has defended the deal as one that met all legal requirements including taxes.
But sources in the Enforcement Directorate disagree and said "there is no clean chit to anyone at this stage." In the US, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said he had been misquoted earlier this week as declaring the transaction legitimate, and said it is still being scrutinized by investigators.
Mr Modi founded the cash-loaded Indian Premier League in 2008, then moved to London two years later amid an avalanche of corruption charges. He has refused to return to India claiming death threats from the underworld.
Earlier this month, he claimed that Mrs Raje backed his appeal for immigration in a UK court with "secret" testimony.