A policeman walks past a logo of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) during a governing council meeting of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at BCCI headquarters in Mumbai April 26, 2010. Indian Premier League chief Lalit Modi has been suspended, officials said on Monday, after graft accusations in cricket's richest event ensnared top politicians and Bollywood stars and strained the ruling coalition.ARKO DATTA
Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi was suspended a day ahead of Monday's governing council meeting over allegations of corruption in the lucrative Twenty20 competition.
Shashank Manohar, the president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, announced the decision to suspend Mr. Modi late Sunday.
Mr, Manohar said Mr. Modi's "alleged acts of individual misdemeanours" had "brought a bad name to the administration of cricket and the game itself."
Indian lawmakers have demanded a parliamentary inquiry into claims IPL clubs had been sold for millions of dollars without accounting for the source of the funds.
Mr. Manohar said in a statement that Mr, Modi had been given 15 days to show why "disciplinary action should not be taken against him."
The IPL governing council meeting was to begin Monday at 9:30 a.m. EST.
Mr. Modi was earlier asked by the BCCI to attend the IPL governing council meeting, but he was adamant that the meeting be deferred to May 1 and that he alone was empowered to call for such a meeting.
But Mr. Modi altered his stance Sunday and said he would chair the IPL governing council meeting and discuss all allegations against him. He demanded that the charges against him be made in writing and with proof, which media reports said forced the BCCI chief to suspend him immediately after the IPL final Sunday night.
The controversy has heightened amid investigations by income tax officials involving the accounts of the Indian cricket board and the IPL teams. Federal Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said income tax authorities were already investigating the sources and channels of funding of the IPL team owners.
The controversy erupted after Mr. Modi revealed details about the owners of a club that is set to join an expanded 10-team league next season, questioning why 25 per cent of the team was given to a group that included a friend of India's junior foreign minister, Shashi Tharoor.
Mr. Tharoor, a former United Nations diplomat, resigned amid allegations of corruption in the bidding for a team at the auction last month, when a group made a successful bid of more than $330-million (U.S.) for the Kochi franchise.
It was alleged that the shares were really for Mr. Tharoor.
Mr. Tharoor said he did help put together the winning investment group, but only because he wanted to bring a team to the state of Kerala, part of which he represents in Parliament.