Former Board of Control for Cricket in India chief Jagmohan Dalmiya, facing criminal charges for misappropriation of funds related to the 1996 World Cup, on Friday got a major relief when the Cricket Board and the state of Maharashtra told the Supreme Court that they are not opposed to the anticipatory bail granted to him by Bombay High Court last month.
The state of Maharashtra, which had challenged the anticipatory bail granted to Dalmiya, changed its stance after a Bench of Justice S B Sinha and Justice P K Balasubramanyan observed that "it was a problem of vindictiveness."
However, the court issued notices to Dalmiya, former BCCI secretary S K Nair and treasurers Kishore Rungta and Jyoti Bajpai, on Maharashtra's Special Leave Petition as Harish Salve, senior counsel appearing for the state, said he wanted certain observations made in the High Court order expunged.
Salve said that the High Court's observations on the merits of the case amounted to saying there is no case against Dalmiya and others.
When senior counsel L Nageshwar Rao submitted on behalf of the Cricket Board that he was opposed to the anticipatory bail granted to Dalmiya, the court said "BCCI is only a complainant in the case. It has no locus standi... This is too much..."
Surprisingly, minutes later Rao said he would not oppose the bail granted to Dalmiya and others.
On behalf of Dalmiya, senior counsel Soli J Sorabjee submitted it is a case of vindictiveness and nothing else and the court should record it in its order.
Salve submitted certain documents relating to the case in the court for perusal. However, when Sorabjee asked for a copy of the same, he refused to part with the said documents saying he cannot share it with the accused as the investigation is still going on.
The Bombay High Court on April 10 had granted anticipatory bail to Dalmiya, S K Nair, Rungta and Bajpai, observing, "undue haste is writ large in filing the complaint."
BCCI had filed a case in March with the Marine Drive police station in Mumbai alleging that Dalmiya and the others had misappropriated Rs 21.74 lakh from an account named 'World Cup 1996' (originally called INDCOM account) with a Kolkata branch of the Indian Overseas Bank.
While hearing the bail plea, the High Court had asked the Maharashtra state whether the complainant Niranjan Shah was unaware of alleged misappropriation by Dalmiya when Shah himself was a BCCI member during Dalmiya's tenure.
The court was also informed that the 'World Cup 96' account was never audited, by BCCI counsel Shirish Gupte who said this was never questioned as "all along Dalmiya was at the helm of affairs."
It was also alleged during the arguments that K M Choudhary, who worked for Dalmiya's own company and had nothing to do with BCCI, operated the said account and had transferred about Rs 15,66,000 to Kolkata-based S G Traders.
It was argued that during inquiry, Dalmiya had disowned this transaction, saying he never knew Choudhary, which was itself sufficient to seek his custodial interrogation.
The former BCCI chief's lawyer Adhik Shirodkar had reiterated his charge that Dalmiya was being persecuted by his rivals in BCCI, who were part of the current President Sharad Pawar's 'camp'.
Shirodkar also claimed that complaint was lodged in Mumbai where Pawar-headed NCP controls the state home ministry.
