The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is facing questions for not persuading the foreign ministry to challenge a court order that restored corruption-hit former IPL boss Lalit Modi’s passport in 2014, though it was investigating his case.
His passport came into focus after a British newspaper reported that foreign minister Sushma Swaraj exercised her influence to help Modi get British travel documents at a time when he was facing serious charges of financial fraud in the IPL, a highly successful Twenty-20 cricket tournament he had started.
The ED, which is the country’s top agency to curb economic offences, was in touch with the foreign ministry when a single-judge bench of the Delhi High Court dismissed Modi’s appeal after his passport was revoked over financial fraud charges, prompting him to move a division bench.
The division bench ruled in his favour but the ED never contacted the foreign ministry to make a case for challenging the court ruling, a source said on Tuesday.
Modi was issued a fresh passport from the Indian High Commission in London in September 2014 following the court order.
{{/usCountry}}Modi was issued a fresh passport from the Indian High Commission in London in September 2014 following the court order.
{{/usCountry}}The opposition Congress sought to know who took the decision not to challenge the high court order.