Income Tax department sleuths today conducted a raid at the head office of the Sahara Group, owner of IPL Pune team, at Aliganj here and scoured through documents related to the Indian Premier League.

A 12-member team came to the office at about 2 PM and examined documents related to IPL, company sources said.

However, company officials maintained that it was "not a raid but a routine survey" by the department.

"They had sought time to examine the IPL papers," they said.

Following the controversy over IPL Kochi franchise, Income Tax officials had yesterday swooped down on the offices of other IPL franchisees like Kolkata Knight Riders, Chennai Super Kings, Deccan Chargers and Kings XI Punjab.

Business conglomerate Sahara had last month bagged Pune, one of the two new teams unveiled in the cash-awash Twenty20 League from the 2011 season.

Earlier report:

Income Tax officials probing alleged financial irregularities in the cash-rich IPL today claimed to have found some "incriminating" documents during searches at the offices of Kolkata Knight Riders and Cricket Association of Bengal.

The searches that began last evening went on for eight hours and ended at 1 AM during when the CAB office bearers, including its joint secretary Biswarup Dey were questioned.

"We have some incriminating documents related to IPL and KKR. We will further investigate its nature and all transactions of IPL, KKR and CAB," Akhilendu Jadhav, an IT official, told reporters in the wee hours of morning here.

KKR was among the four Indian Premier League(IPL) franchisees whose offices were surveyed during a nation-wide probe by tax sleuths yesterday. The offices of Chennai Super Kings, Deccan Chargers and Kings XI were searched in Chennai, Hyderabad and Gurgaon respectively.

"We are satisfied with our inquiry. This is a lengthy process and if needed we will come back again," an IT official said here when asked whether they have plans to conduct a similar raid at the office of CAB president Jagmohan Dalmiya.

Dey said they had complied with all the details and documents that were asked for by the taxmen.

The IT authorities are investigating the entire IPL structure, which has become a huge revenue-earning entity for the BCCI, since its inception in 2008.

Related report:

New name emerges in the IPL saga

A day after civil aviation minister claimed he was not associated with the IPL in any way, it has emerged that his office was in touch with the former junior foreign minister Shashi Tharoor over the projected valuation of the new franchisee.

According to a report in Economic Times today, Patel’s personal secretary had last month sent a mail to Tharoor with a Microsoft Excel document containing projections of new franchisee valuations in IPL.

The emails, that ET claims it has seen, show that Champa Bharatwaj, personal secretary to Mr Patel, forwarded a mail from her official ID to Shashi Tharoor’s personal ID, hours after IPL CEO Sundar Raman sent the same document to the aviation minister’s daughter and IPL hospitality manager Poorna Patel.

Patel has called a press conference in the capital today in which he is likely to react to the report. Earlier, Patel had vehemently denied his role in the IPL corruption saga that has been unfolding ever since the IPL commissioner Lalit Modi disclosed the names of the Kochi franchisee owners. “I have never been part of the IPL bidding process at all—whether it was round one or round two. This is a completely baseless allegation,” Patel told ET on Tuesday Reacting to the report on the said mail, Patel on Wednesday told ET that his secretary was only forwarding information requested by Tharoor.

“Shashi and I have been friends and he did ask me whether I could help him with some information in the capacity of a friend, since he was putting together a team from Kochi. I spoke to Lalit and told him that Shashi wanted some information. Beyond that I don’t know what information has been passed. If I was a bidder, why would I help out a competitor with information?” he told ET.

According to the ET report Patel’s secretary sent a mail to Tharoor at 10:06 pm on March 19, two days before the bids were opened and Tharoor-supported Kochi consortium sprang a surprise by making the second-highest bid. About two hours earlier that day, this document was first sent by IPL CEO Sundar Raman to Poorna Patel, the aviation minister’s 24-year-old daughter who works with the league as hospitality manager. Raman sent copies of the mail to herl and one Peter Griffiths of IMG.

Earlier report:

BCCI rejects Modi's contention, meet is on

The BCCI today rejected embattled Lalit Modi's contention that the April 26 IPL Governing Council meeting was illegal and made it clear that it would go ahead with the meeting as per schedule.

"It is his view point, everybody is entitled to their viewpoint," BCCI president Shashank Manohar said when asked what he thinks about Modi's contention that the meeting was unauthorised.

The BCCI also disagreed with Modi's stand that secretary N Srinivasan could not convene the Governing Council meeting merely because he is part of an IPL franchise.

"It is not a question of owner. He (Srinivasan) is not calling the meeting as an owner of the team and in the board constitution, the secretary is the convenor of all meetings," Manohar said.

"Whether there is conflict of interest is not an issue because Mr Srinivasan, when this issue had cropped up, had sought the permission of Mr Sharad Pawar, who was the president of the board then.

"Mr Pawar had granted him permission to bid and it is not Mr Srinivasan who is bidding, it was India cement which is bidding and after his bid was accepted it was confirmed by the general body," he added.

Monahar also said while BCCI was aware of Srinivasan's stakes, it was unaware that Modi's relatives and friends had stakes in the franchise and deals.

"Mr Srinivasan was a declared bidder. If Modi and his relatives had a share in any of the franchises, he ought to have declared it at the meeting. I was not a member of Governing Council then. He ought to have told everybody," he said.

Modi had questioned the legality of the Governing Council meeting on April 26 saying that he alone had the power to convene such a meeting by virtue of being the IPL chairman.

Modi wanted the meeting to be convened on May 1 as he wanted time to compile all the documents and prepare his defence.

There is intense speculation that the Governing Council will pass a resolution to oust Modi in Monday's meeting irrespective of whether the IPL Commissioner attends the meeting or not.

Manohar also said he had asked Modi not to disclose the details of all the franchises because there were serious breach of obligation between the Kochi Franchises and the board and they were contemplating legal action.

"The original contract for eight team were signed in January 2008. I was not a member of the Governing council then. Now for the first time on April 11 Modi leaks by twitter the names of Kochi franchises," Manohar said.

"After the names are leaked, I get a communication from Venugopal (of Kochi franchise) around 10:30 at night, saying that there is a confidentiality clause in the contract that has been signed between the Kochi Franchise and the board and there is a serious breach of obligation on the part of the board.

"He says in that communication we will be contemplating to take legal action in this regard. Because of that communciation, I told Modi to keep quiet with regards to the new franchises," he added.

Manohar said before disclosing the stakeholders, they have to see the documents during the Governing Council meeting and if necessary legal opinion will also have to be sought.

"The media pounced on Mr Modi and so wisdom dawned on him on April 14 when he sent that mail, saying we should disclose the names of all franchises which he had not disclosed since January 2008. To that I replied, in view of the letter from Venugopal, that there are legal implications in this regards.

"We have to look at the documents which we have never seen in our life and that's why we will discuss all issues in the Governing Council meeting because, if required, we have to take legal opinion in that regard," he said.

Manohar said he had the support of BCCI and Modi himself had earlier agreed not to divulge the details but now he is selectively leaking mails.

"The other members of the Governing council also supported me and finally Mr Modi selectively leaks the mail.

He had sent a mail that we will do accordingly. So he himself agreed to me when I had sent that mail to him.

"As I said, it is fine for him to leak the mail. Things which you have not done for two years, 10 days would not have made any difference. If the Governing council meeting would have been held, the issue could have been discussed and decided," he added.