File Photo: Former IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi
Controversial cricket boss Lalit Modi's passport was restored by a court in Delhi in August, three years after it had been revoked owing to a whorl of allegations of his involvement in corporate corruption, money-laundering and tax evasion linked to the multi-million dollar Indian Premier League that he created.
The government has yet to appeal against the verdict that said Mr Modi's passport had been wrongly impounded. Sources say the Foreign Ministry and Finance Ministry have been passing the buck to each other for the action needed. The government has lurched into a major controversy after it emerged that last year, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj supported Mr Modi's request for urgent travel documents from UK authorities, allowing him to travel to Portugal with his wife.
Mr Modi is being investigated in nearly 20 cases by the Enforcement Directorate which is located within the Finance Ministry. He left India in 2010 for London, where he now lives.
When the Delhi High Court ruled that Mr Modi's passport should be restored, it was blatantly critical of the agency, stating that the Enforcement Directorate's inquiry was moving too slowly and lacked substantial evidence.
The court also said that the Foreign Exchange Management Act or FEMA, which Mr Modi was accused of violating, does not require Mr Modi's personal appearance and that he can be represented through a lawyer or chartered accountant. Mr Modi, 49, had written to the Enforcement Directorate that he could not return to India because he had been issued personal threats, and claimed that he had supplied the documents sought of him through his lawyer. The High Court said that if necessary, Mr Modi could be interrogated by video conference from London.
In its verdict last year, the High Court also rejected the government's argument that Mr Modi's passport should be revoked because India's obsession with cricket makes the cases against Mr Modi highly sensitive and of vast public interest.