BCCI wants all details of snooping from firm

FORMER PRESIDENT N SRINIVASAN’S LOYALISTS HAVE DENIED THAT FELLOW BOARD MEMBERS WERE THE TARGET OF SNOOPING.

NEW DELHI: With the previous cricket Board secretary Sanjay Patel clarifying his position on the payment of $900,000 (approx. ₹6 crore) made in 2013-2014 for a controversial surveillance that is being alleged was aimed at fellow officials, the focus has shifted to the Uk-based security and investigations company, Page Protective Services (PPS) that carried it out.

HT has learned that the twomember committee of Ajay Shirke and G Ganga Raju probing the issue plans to ask PPS to provide copies of all the digital, electronics and other information that it had handed over to previous regime.

“This is a very serious issue and the BCCI wants to go deep and find out who was responsible for that decision. BCCI had made the payment. Technically, the Board is the PPS client and not any individual,” a Board insider said on Monday. “So, PPS should not hesitate to provide details of the information it handed over to earlier regime as it is BCCI property. Only after assessing that material can the Board reach any conclusion why the ₹6 crore was paid.”

Both former president N Srinivasan’s loyalists, Patel and treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry --- he held the post under Srinivasan as well --- have denied that fellow Board members were the target of the snooping. They told the probe panel that the company was only hired to protect the Board’s interests and to counter former IPL chief Lalit Modi, who was putting out Board documents in the social media. They did not say who ordered the hiring of the firm.

“If this is the case, we are interested to find out from where and how e-mail exchanges between Shashank Manohar (BCCI president) and Lalit Modi and the secretary’s (Anurag Thakur) pictures with an alleged bookie were generated and circulated to a section of the media.” said the official.

Interestingly, Modi had tweeted in February 2014 that someone in the BCCI had authorised a London agency to mount 24-hour surveillance on Justice Mukul Mudgal during his trip to London for probing the 2013 IPL spot-fixing scam.

According to sources, Chaudhury told the BCCI top brass that his office released the payment only after obtaining all required documents from the secretary’s office. Patel sought time to explain who had asked him to pay PPS. It is not clear if he has satisfied the BCCI bosses on this issue.