BHUBANESWAR: The Indian Premier League (IPL) might have taken a couple of years to invite scrutiny over financial irregularities but the State version _ Orissa Premier League (OPL) _ finds itself on a sticky wicket from its debut season. The ostentatious spending in the fledgling T20 championship is now under scanner of both the Income Tax (IT) Department and the State Vigilance. The IT Department is all set to issue notice to Orissa Cricket Association (OCA), the organisers, asking for the list of franchisees, ownership details and quantum of investment made by them in the T20 league. Individual notices will be sent to the franchisees basing on the information given by the OCA. One of the key areas which the IT probe will look into is whether the franchisees are genuine or front companies. IT sources said the Vigilance Department has also been requested to furnish details of the franchisees and investment made by them. Earlier, the IT Department had zeroed in on the co-owner of the Cuttack Barabati Tigers franchise, Mahadev Pati, and issued him notice. But he is absconding. Pati was working as an MVI and his houses and other properties were raided by the Vigilance on charges of amassing property disproportionate to his known sources of income. The Vigilance Department has also started probe into the sources of investment of Cuttack franchisee. Sources in the Vigilance said Pati had also floated a construction company and recently purchased the OPL team. Vigilance Director Anup Patnaik said various documents in this connection are being examined. Besides the Cuttack franchisee, two to three more teams are under the scrutiny of the Vigilance. The OCA has been asked to give details of the investment made by them, he said and added some mine owners and contractors have invested black money to purchase teams. The Vigilance Director, however, refused to divulge the names of the teams under probe. Patnaik said in the first phase, Vigilance has decided to start probing those teams which have been purchased by persons whose income are under investigation. The OPL had raised eyebrows from the beginning because of the lavish spending. It was alleged that illegal mining money has been pumped into OPL to make it white. Former minister and BJD dissident Damodar Rout told this paper that he had raised the issue from the beginning. Alleging that tainted mining scam money had been invested in the OPL, Rout demanded that investment of Jagatsinghpur and Keonjhar franchisees should also be probed. Bhubaneswar Jaguars with a price tag of ` 55 lakh was costliest team in the fray. The OPL generated an investment of around ` 15 crore which was contributed mainly by 10 franchisees who said they wanted to promote cricket and bring talents to the limelight.
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