With Opposition parties lining up in Parliament to attack the Indian Premier League (IPL), the government on Monday told the Lok Sabha that investigation into the sources and routes of funding for the tournament had already begun and ?no guilty or wrong-doer? would be spared.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, in response to the Opposition?s demands, made a statement in the House, assuring the members that ?appropriate action as per law? would be taken if any wrong-doing was found in the manner the IPL was funded.
?The concerned department has already started the investigation process. All aspects including sources of funding and routes through which the funds arrived would be looked into. Appropriate action as per law would be taken. No guilty or wrong-doer will be spared,? Mukherjee said. As Lalu Prasad (RJD) and Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP) continued to raise the issue, Mukherjee said, ?We will look into all aspects.?
Earlier in the day, Lalu Prasad, Mulayam Singh and JD(U)?s Sharad Yadav led the demand for a probe into the funding of IPL.
?Tharoor has resigned… it is not enough… there is betting going on in the name of IPL… Sports department should take over the IPL,? said Lalu Prasad as soon as the House assembled. ?IPL is the main issue,? Sharad Yadav added in Lalu?s support.
Mulayam Singh and Dara Singh Chauhan (BSP) extended support as Speaker Meira Kumar urged members to allow Question Hour. It was only after an assurance from the chair that the issue could be taken up during Zero Hour that these leaders relented and allowed Question Hour.
?It is good that the minister (Tharoor) has resigned. But that is not all… IPL has become a route of laundering black money. People are white-washing their black money… It has become an organised gambling… I have information that large sums of money are coming via Mauritius, from Dubai, from dubious sources. Swiss bank money is being laundered…There should be a thorough probe into the source of funds and the government should set up a JPC to probe it,? said Gurudas Dasgupta of the CPI.
He got support from the Yadav trio and Mulayam Singh and Sharad Yadav even demanded that the IPL be banned. The main Opposition BJP, which had remained silent while these leaders were speaking, chipped in at the end, supporting the demand for a probe into the IPL.
?IPL is not promoting cricket. It has the involvement of black money… black money stashed in Swiss banks is involved in it… there should be a thorough probe,? said BJP leader Gopinath Munde.
Meanwhile, Tharoor met Pranab Mukherjee, Defence minister AK Antony and parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Bansal separately. Sources said that Tharoor was planning to give a statement in Parliament and had discussed modalities of allowing him to present his case in the House.