‘I’ll come back only if it is safe’

Sacked IPL Chairman Lalit Modi on Thursday called the charges against him as witch-hunt. Modi said he did not rig any of the IPL bids and did not make money out of IPL.

Sacked IPL Chairman Lalit Modi on Thursday called the charges against him as witch-hunt. Modi said he did not rig any of the IPL bids and did not make money out of IPL. In an interview to You Tube, he said BCCI was aware about the bidding process including that some of his relatives were involved.

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“When somebody turns around and says that they didn't know about it it's absolutely a false story...I mean everybody concerned from the governing council to the BCCI members, were very much present in the room, and in fact everybody was just happy at that point in time because we got eight bids,” he said.

“In fact you had my Vice Chairman Niranjan Shah who was questioned immediately after the auction and said ‘Mr Modi’s relatives have bid’, he said ‘so what, there are no other bidders out there, and if he has bid he has put his own money in’, if it wasn’t friends and family that are coming to bid and come into and believe in the product they wouldn’t have had IPL in the first place," he said.

Asked about all the charges he said, “Currently whatever is on is like a witch hunt and you know I’d rather not comment on it, this is something that you’ve got to ask the government why they’re doing it.”

Explaining the Kochi row,he said, “For the first time I found that an agreement had been submitted by a party where they had a 25% sweat equity clause in there, and that clause, irrespective of the capitalisation was going to ask the other 75% shareholders to pay for losses over the next decade of decades......it's business at the end of the day for them.

Modi said he is cooperating with investigating agencies and will return to India when he feels it is safe for him. “I do not want to take the risk, for me security of me and my family is extremely important.”