Image for Pranab: Won’t spar

New Delhi, April 19: The government was forced to assure the Lok Sabha on Monday that the probe into the IPL goings-on would look into all aspects, including from where the money to fund it was coming. It also promised that the guilty would be punished.

Leader of the House and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee told the House immediately after it reconvened following a lunch break: “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.” He added, “No guilty or wrongdoer will be spared.”
The government’s assurance came in the wake of the matter being raised repeatedly and raucously by MPs from various political parties and their demand that its funding be probed. While some MPs sought to raise the IPL issue during Question Hour itself, it was during Zero Hour soon after that the matter was formally raised by CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta. Mr Dasgupta demanded that a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) be set up to probe the IPL controversy.
The concerted attack by the BJP, RJD, SP, JD(U), BSP and the Left parties came during Zero Hour. But the Yadav trio of Lalu Prasad, Mulayam Singh and Sharad Yadav sought to raise the IPL issue during Question Hour itself, stating that the IPL has become a “betting and gambling ring”. Mr Dasgupta claimed the root cause of the issue is money-laundering and that “players are being bought like vegetables”. The CPI                             n Turn to Page 2
MP also alleged that betting is being done openly in the IPL and that a large portion of the money into the IPL is from “dubious sources”.
Mr Lalu Yadav described the IPL as “sattebaazi (gambling)” and alleged that black money stashed away in Swiss banks was being turned into white through it. Mulayam Singh Yadav, too, said the IPL involved “sattebaazi” and sought a ban on it.
While attacking the IPL, the RJD chief said his son, a budding cricketer, was being made to “wipe the faces” of players during matches. “When I saw this, I felt hurt. This treatment is being meted out to a Yadav’s son,” he said.

Age Correspondent