It’s interesting to note that Modi had confessed to committing the offences before a North Carolina court and entered a ‘plea bargain’, which is permitted under the US law.
IN 1985 the chief of the Indian Premier League, Lalit Modi, was convicted of possessing drugs, kidnapping and assault in the US. He was a university student then. Durham County had charged Modi with kidnapping, assault and possession of 400 grams of cocaine. It’s interesting to note that Modi had confessed to committing the offences before a North Carolina court and entered a ‘plea bargain’, which is permitted under the US law and allows a reduced punishment without a trial if the accused confesses to his or her crimes.
The Durham County Court had accepted Modi’s plea bargaining application and found him guilty of kidnapping and assault. On Modi’s request, the court placed him on five years probation, asking him to undergo 100 hours of community service. The decision on sentencing for possession of drugs was deferred for five years on the condition that a $50,000 cash bond was deposited with the court. This is a normal practice in North Carolina for first-time offenders.
The court sentenced him to two years imprisonment and fined him $10,000.
Of Course, he didn’t serve two years jail sentence. He was simply let off on probation.
Modi’s lawyers believe that the US court did not pass any final judgment on the drugs charge in the next five years and the cash bond was also discharged. It is worth to mention that North Carolina rules allow first-time offenders in drugs cases to be given the benefit of deferred sentences.
Modi had moved the court again in 1986 — after graduating from Duke University — seeking permission to move to India on health grounds. The court ordered: “As a fact the defendant has been hospitalized, his doctors indicate that a return to his home in India would facilitate his recovery. The said probation be modified to unsupervised probation. As a condition, the defendant is to perform 200 hours of community service by 1990. He may return to his home.”
In India our Supreme Court has been hearing a petition challenging Modi’s position as a cricket official since 2005. In Supreme Court a petitioner Kishore Rungta, who was defeated by Modi in the elections, had challenged Modi’s election as president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association on the grounds that its rules do not permit anyone convicted of a criminal offence to hold the post of an office-bearer.
And here is a headline about another giant of Gujrat Politics:
Ahmadabad -The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday asked the state Advocate General when the time would be “mature” enough to summon Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others before the State-appointed commission probing the 2002 Godhra train attack and the Gujarat riots that followed.
These are the two icons of Indian Capitalism.
I’ve stopped reading between the lines.
