'Maria didn't brief me about meeting Modi'

Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria found himself in a bind on Monday as the then Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan revealed that he had not been briefed by the former about his meeting with the scam-tainted former IPl Commissioner lalit Modi in london in July 2On a day when Maria submitted his explanation to Maharashtra’s current Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis about his meeting with Modi in london in July 2014, Chavan said that he had no knowledge about his visit to london and his meeting with the former IPl chief.

Talking to the media a day after Fadnavis sought an explanation from Mumbai’s current police commissioner on his meeting with Modi, Chavan said: “I was not aware of Maria’s visit to london and his meeting with Modi. (When I was the Chief Minister) Maria did not tell me anything about his meeting with lalit Modi in london in July 2014. Even the then Home Minister RR Patil did not tell me anything about it”.“Ideally, Maria should have informed me orally and also the then Minister of State for Home Satej Patil,” Chavan said.

Chavan’s revelation has provided a new dimension to the Maria-lalit Modi meeting in london in July 2014.A day after Maria confirmed that he had met the scam-tainted former IPl Commissioner in July 2014, Fadnavis had on Sunday sought an explanation from Maria on the statement made by his meeting with Modi.Talking to media persons at Nagpur, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had said: “We have asked Rakesh Maria to give information about the meeting and what he had told the media. Based on it we would decide the further course of action”. After a photograph of him with the scam-tainted former IPl Commissioner, Maria had confirmed his meeting with lalit Modi in london in 2004.

In a statement issued by him to the media on Saturday evening, Maria had said he had approached by a lawyer presenting Modi, while he was attending a conference in london in July 2014. The Mumbai police chief said that the lawyer had cited the grave threat to the life faced by Modi and his family members as the reason for the former IPl chief wanting to meet him.   “It may be recollected that as Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) in the year 2009-10, the Crime Branch under me had foiled an attempt on his life by the Mumbai under world,” Maria had said in his statement.Maria had said that the lawyer in question requested him to meet Modi briefly citing the reasons of the threat to latter’s life. “As per the lawyer’s insistence, we met albeit briefly wherein Modi sought the Mumbai Police’s help as he and his family was being threatened by the underworld,” he said.

Maria had recalled that during his brief meeting with Modi, he had categorically told the former IPl chief that the Mumbai Police had no jurisdiction in london and that he should return to Mumbai to lodge a formal complaint.“lalit Modi kept requesting Mumbai Police intervention against the underworld. I reiterated Modi and his lawyer that it was imperative for lalit Modi to return to Mumbai for the Mumbai Police to initiate any inquiry. Thereafter, the meeting which lasted for 15 to 20 minutes concluded,” Maria had said.