Shashi Tharoor might be ducking Lalit Modi's bouncers but the abrasive commissioner of the Indian Premier League is keeping them coming.

Within an hour of Tharoor's written statement in the Lok Sabha, where he said nothing in Particular (see lead story), Modi launched another fierce attack on Tharoor saying the latter had a hidden agenda.
"They are trying to put dispute into this. But we are here to stay. We have a robust league and we will continue doing a good job irrespective of hidden agendas. "We will not allow Mr Tharoor to try and shadow this up. Mr Tharoor has a different agenda and it will be shut down, believe me," Modi said.
He also alleged that Tharoor wants to move the newly-won IPL Kochi franchise to Abu Dhabi but said he will not let that happen. "This morning, I learnt from a colleague of mine that Mr Tharoor has approached them for their support to move the team out to Abu Dhabi. I don't know which way they are going. The theme is to play in India, We will not allow any team to play outside India," PTI reported Modi as saying on Times Now.
"All these allegations are to digress from giving the truth as to who the shareholders are and that's the key and that's what we are looking for. I will raise it in the next governing council meeting," he said.
Modi also denied accusations that political pressure was put on investors to bid for the Ahmedabad franchise.
"There was no pressure from anybody. They went and met Mr Narendra Modi. He told them very clearly that you won this franchise for Kochi, so keep it in Kochi. They came to ask me to move it. They should have bid for Ahmedabad. They had the opportunity to bid for it."
Modi was also confident that there was no move within the BCCI to clip his wings by appointing president Shashank Manohar as IPL Co-Chairman.
"The constitution provides me to be chairman right now. There is no co-chairman position right now. We will deal with it. This is an internal matter of BCCI and IPL."
Modi though admitted that there was a divide in the BCCI on the style of functioning.
"I am sure there will be a divide. We have lived with the divide in the past and we will live with it in future. But we are not going to allow it (IPL) to derail. It's a baby we have built together and we will preserve it and preserve it to the hilt," he said.

Earlier report:

Income-Tax officers went back satisfied, says Lalit Modi

IPL commissioner Lalit Modi faced queries from income tax (IT) officials till early Friday morning on the ownership of franchises, but he claimed that everything was found in order and IT team had gone back "satisfied".

IT teams reached IPL premises at BCCI and offices of Modi, who was involved in a public spat with minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor for divulging the names of Kochi team, last evening and were looking at record till this morning.

While no official comments could be obtained from IT authorities about the inquiry they launched into ownership of the different teams, including two that were given for a total of over Rs 3200 crore, Modi told PTI, "They have taken details and have gone back satisfied.

"They did not know the bidding procedure and asked me about it. They also sought the names of bidders and final documents of successful bids for the Kochi and Pune teams. We have complied with all the information."

Asked if he was quizzed for 7-8 hours, as IT teams left his premises only after 0300 hours this morning, Modi said, "No they questioned me only for 15-20 minutes and they wanted papers relating to two teams. It took time to collect these from two to three different places.

"They took the photocopies and expressed satisfaction over the entire (bidding) process. We are open to scrutiny by any agency as we have done no wrong and were are totally transparent."

Income tax officials visited the Indian Premier League headquarters at Wankhede stadium as also Modi's office at Nirlon House in upmarket Worli, where they sought information and asked questions from Modi between 7.15 pm yesterday and 3.20 am today.

After the tax sleuths left, Modi told reporters, "They (the officials) were given documentation details, they verified the documents and went through the entire process of bidding. We fully cooperated with them and provided them with all they required."

Modi said that IT officials had asked him a few printed questions about him and relating to the names of bidders and the procedures.

"When they asked me about other teams (eight franchisee that were bid for three years ago), I told them that information is in public domain. Thereafter they did not press for any further information. I also assured to part with every information about the teams if needed", he said.

According to I-T sources, the agency, apart from probing the sources bankrolling the cash-flush league, is looking into whether ill-gotten money stashed away in tax havens like Mauritius has made its way into the IPL.

The IPL chief rubbished media reports that his laptop was seized and unaccounted cash recovered from his office.

"99 per cent of stories being put out by the media are untrue."

Modi has been fighting a controversy ever since divulging the name of Sunanda Pushkar, who was given free of cost 18 percent of the 25 per cent stake held by Rendezvous Sports in the Kochi team in lieu of her contribution for project and marketing efforts. Pushkar's proximity to external affairs minister Shashi Tharoor sparked speculations of her being a front for the minister to buya stake in the IPL franchise. The controversy got stirred further when Modi claimed that Tharoor had put pressure on him not to disclose the name of the owners of the Kochi team. The minister had responded by denying Modi's claims and had said that the IPL commisioner was upset with the Kochi team owners outbid other bidders with whom he had 'business interests'.

Sunanda, a businesswoman based in Dubai, told PTI earlier this week that it was sweat equity and she was yet to get it.

"It is still on papers only," Pushkar had said.

She had also debunked reports that the equity valued at about Rs 70 crore was for fronting for Tharoor and said that she had been trying to associate with IPL since last year for which she had presented a branding and marketing concept to Shahrukh Khan owned Kolkata Knight Riders.

Khan's associate Karim Morani, who had discussed the concept with Sunanda, later told PTI that the discussions were on for the second season of IPL but no progress could be made after the event was shifted to South Africa last year.

Agriculture minister and former BCCI chief Sharad Pawar had come out in support of Modi last evening, saying IPL and its commissioner were well within their rights to seek details about owners.