ED slaps Rs 98.5 crore notice on Rajasthan Royals

IPL team Rajasthan Royals was slapped with a penalty notice of approximately Rs 100 crore by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for alleged violation of forex laws, a move which comes barely two months before the sixth edition of the high-profile league gets underway.

The agency, which issued the penalty notice after a two years of investigations under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), has sent out three separate notices to the IPL franchise totalling to Rs 98.5 crore plus some other similar notices earlier, sources said.

While a Rs 50 crore penalty has been slapped on Jaipur IPL Cricket Private Limited (JIPL) and its directors, owners of Rajasthan Royals, Rs 34 crore notice for evasion of forex duties has been issued against EM Sporting Holding, Mauritius and its directors.

A fresh notice of Rs 14.5 crore has been issued against Ms ND Investments, United Kingdom and its directors.

The franchise said it "intends to launch a full appeal" against the ED order.

"Rajasthan Royals has today received an Order from the Enforcement Directorate in respect of alleged breaches of FEMA. We are discussing the contents of the Order with our lawyers and intend to launch a full appeal against the Order," the franchise said in a statement.

"We will not be making any further statement on this matter at this time," it added.

All the three parties can appeal against this penalty order in the appellate authority of FEMA. The order requires the IPL team to pay up in 45 days.

The ED has been investigating financial and foreign exchange irregularities against all the IPL franchises for almost two years now and this is the first big order against any team. It comes just a day after auctions concluded in Chennai for the sixth edition of the glamorous cricket extravaganza.

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