Harbhajan Singh performs on stage with actor Shah Rukh Khan during the IPL Awards Night at the Grand Hyatt on April 23, 2010 in Mumbai.

Sourav Ganguly attends the IPL Awards Night at the Grand Hyatt on April 23, 2010 in Mumbai.

Actress Priyanka Chopra performs on stage during the IPL Awards Night at the Grand Hyatt on April 23, 2010 in Mumbai.

Yuvraj Singh performs with Neha Dhupia at the IPL Awards Night on April 23, 2010

IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, who is under intense pressure to resign from his post after I-T officials began probing IPL finances, on Saturday put out his message on Twitter saying he won’t resign.

Modi said, “People pressurising me to resign – I can tell you will not happen. Let them remove me then.”

“Wait for the IPL to finish, I will reveal the men who have tried to bring disrepute to the game and how we stopped them from doing it,” roared Modi.

“I am not the type to quit. Have faith. Did not create this to just walk away because xyz says what they feel like,” Modi declared.

“What we have done has been there for all of you to see for the past four years. No one can take that away,” he added on Twitter.

“Media is putting stories without verification goes to show how media can misuse there power. Don’t get influenced by all these baseless stories,” he wrote.

“Truth will prevail soon. Trial by media and no chance to present the facts is like the wild west. Wait and the facts will be delivered,” he said.

Tweeting about the IPL controversy, Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan, co-owner of Kolkata Knight Riders wrote, “IPL controversy: fast, furious & too much noise. Like the T20 itself. Hope it gets resolved as fast too for our friend Lalit & franchises.”

“Had a great time. Could not stay back as had a shoot in the morning. All of us smiled through a tinge of sadness,” Shah Rukh added.

Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Vijay Mallya tweeted that despite media bashing it was heart warming to witness applause by owners/ players for Lalit Modi at the awards for the fine job he has done.

“It was so nice to see Lalit smile despite all hell breaking loose in the media. You have to give it to him for making IPL what it is “, actress Preity Zinta, co-promoter of Kings XI Punjab, posted in her tweets.

Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty of Rajasthan Royals said she supported full and fair investigations.

“Full and fair investigation of IPL will compel loud mouths to shut up by realizing the true value of sixth largest sporting event in world”, Shilpa said in her tweets.

After Shashi Tharoor, Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel is now facing the heat of IPL controversy as reports in the media indicate that Prime Minister Manmohan singh has sought details of his as well as Sharad Pawar’s involvement in the IPL row.

The reports say that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee met the Prime Minster with details about Praful patel and his daughter Poorna’s alleged role helping Tharoor with the IPL Kochi franchise’s evaluation two days before they were made public.

Reports also say that the PM got the details of NCP leader Sharad Pawar’s son-in-law Sadanand Sule’s stake in an IPL broadcaster.

However, Pawar’s daughter and Sule’s wife Supriya has already denied any role of her husband in the IPL other than being an avid cricket follower.

A senior Congress leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, claimed the IPL controversy will actually lead to the NCP’s ties with Congress getting more strengthened.

Meanwhile, BJP is seeking to fish in troubled waters with a senior leader, who asked not to be named, saying that the party’s strategy was only to target the Congress as Sharad Pawar’s party has eight members in the Lok Sabha and numbers will count when opposition moves a cut motion to the Finance Bill.

Shiv Sena today demanded a CBI probe into the IPL controversy, saying that the central agency could investigate the matter in a better way.

“I demand a CBI inquiry into this. I think that CBI can investigate the issue in a much better way,” senior Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi told reporters outside Parliament.

Asked if the ouster of IPL Chairman Lalit Modi would end the controversy, he said, “the row will not get over as our leader Balasaheb Thackeray has said the IPL should be stopped as it is less of a game and more of other things.”

On whether the BCCI should be brought into the income tax net as it was “not doing any charitable work as a trust”, he said, “naturally, this is true. BCCI is earning a lot of money but the government will have to take a decision on whether they should be in the tax net or not.”

Joshi said BCCI was not under the tax net as per the rules for charitable trust but “if the rules are fully changed to do so, then it is a different matter.” He said at the moment there was no need for bringing the cricket body into the tax net.

JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav, however, felt there is no need for a CBI probe into the IPL row. “What is CBI? Finance Ministry is conducting inquiry and it should continue.”

Asked about CBI probe, Coal Minister Shriprakash Jaiswal only said, “there should be a high-level inquiry into the IPL issue.”

Mumbai: Sachin Tendulkar’s absence made no difference to the Mumbai Indians as they stormed into the finals of IPL-3 with a comfortable 35-run victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore on Wednesday.

185 proved to be too big a target for the Royal Challengers as the Mumbai Indians did everything right to defend their score. Dravid and Kallis opened for RCB- a sign that they were saving up their best batsmen for the last. The two put on 24 for the first wicket before Kallis nicked one to Ambati Rayudu off Malinga. No.3 Kevin Pietersen stuck around to score 19 before being stumped after an excellent piece of work by Ambati Rayudu.

With two batsmen back in the dug out, Robin Uthappa walked in. Uthappa who was traded by the Mumbai Indians in exchange for Zaheer Khan in 2009 worked up a good appetite smashing all his boundaries( two fours, two sixes) off Harbhajan Singh. Just when one thought that RCB’s chase was back on track, Uthappa holed out to Shikhar Dhawan at deep square leg to become Kieron Pollard’s first wicket.

Pollard then decided to dive despite a dodgy hamstring too run out Rahul Dravid for 23. With the scoring rate going up a lot was expected from Virat Kohli (9) and Manish Pandey (5) but the duo failed to deliver. With wickets falling at regular intervals, Ross Taylor (31*) could only watch as RCB’s defeat looked imminent. Lasith Malinga (2/24) and Dilhara Fernando (1/28) then bowled well in the end as Anil Kumbale’s boys finished with 149/9. Kieron Pollard was declared the Man-of-the-Match for his all-round contributions of 33 not out with the bat and 3/17 with the ball.

Earlier the Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to bat first. Sachin Tendulkar struck two fours off Dale Steyn before he played a horrible stroke to depart for 9. His opening partner Shikhar Dhawan (12) didn’t last too long either. Dhawan asked for a run only to be sent back by partner Abhishek Nayar; the ball hit the stumps and with no fielder around, Nayar called again. But as Dhawan ran to the non-striker’s end he fell short of the crease as Virat Kohli’s throw found the stumps. Mumbai had lost both their openers with the score on 29.

IPL Chairman Lalit Modi was today questioned by a joint team of Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate officials probing alleged financial irregularities by the T20 cricket body and its franchises. Meanwhile, the offices of Sahara and Delhi Daredevils owner GMR were raided today.

Officials of the two agencies began the exercise around 8.30 this morning at Modi’s office at upscale Four Seasons hotel in central Mumbai and later shifted the venue to the IPL top honcho’s office at Nirlon House in Worli.

It is for a second time in less than 24 hours that Modi is being questioned by the IT. He was also quizzed last Thursday about IPL bidding process and issues relating to franchisee owners.

Last night the IT officials had questioned him barely hours after its sleuths searched the premises of three entities associated with the hugely successful cricket entity.

Modi’s questioning last night primarily focused on the broadcasting rights of IPL after it transpired that a “facilitation fee” of USD 80 million was paid by Multi-Screen Media to World Sports Group to reacquire the telecast rights of the league.

During today’s probe, Modi was understood to have been asked questions about the payment of a portion of the facilitation fee by MSM to an offshore company of WSG in Mauritius, a tax haven, without paying income tax on the transaction in India, sources familiar with the development said.

I-T sleuths raid Sahara head office in Lucknow

Lucknow/New Delhi/Mumbai: Income tax department sleuths today conducted a raid at the head office of the Sahara Group, owner of the Indian Premier League (IPL) Pune team, at Aliganj in Lucknow and scoured through documents related to the IPL.

A 12-member team came to the office at about 2pm and examined documents related to IPL, company sources said. However, company officials maintained that it was “not a raid but a routine survey” by the department. “They had sought time to examine the IPL papers,” they said.

Following the controversy over IPL Kochi franchise, income tax officials had yesterday swooped down on the offices of other IPL franchisees like Kolkata Knight Riders, Chennai Super Kings, Deccan Chargers and Kings XI Punjab.

Business conglomerate Sahara had last month bagged Pune, one of the two new teams unveiled in the cash-awash Twenty20 League from the 2011 season.

I-T department raids GMR’s Delhi Daredevil office

The Income Tax department today carried out a raid at the Delhi Daredevil office owned by conglomerate GMR in connection with the IPL probe.

The I-T sleuths reached the Barakhamba Road office in the afternoon to conduct the survey operation after receiving inputs from Mumbai investigation wing of the department, sources said.

However, when contacted, company officials denied that any such operation was carried out on their premises. GMR sports is the owner of IPL team Delhi Daredevils.

The Indian cricket board seems to be a divided house on the Lalit Modi-Shashi Tharoor row with board vice-president Rajiv Shukla coming out in support of the minister of state for external affairs here Friday.

Shukla, a Congres MP, stood by his party colleague Tharoor and said there was “no reason to disbelieve him (Tharoor)”.

Tharoor and Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi, who is also a BCCI vice-president, are embroiled in a raging row after Modi alleged that the minister wanted him to suppress details of Kochi’s shareholding pattern, especially the stakes of his friend Sunanda Pushkar, who is a Dubai based businesswoman.

Tharoor has denied the allegations in the Lok Sabha, amidst vociferous protests from the opposition, and Shukla said the minister’s explanations should be taken on face value.

“There is no reason to disbelieve Tharoor. He has presented a statement on the floor of the house and it should end there,” Shukla, a Rajya Sabha member, said.

Asked about the late night raids by Income Tax officials at the IPL and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) headquarters in Mumbai, Shukla said: “Wherever there are financial transactions, the Income Tax department is there to check. The IT department can come and check. They came to investigate and the BCCI and the IPL are cooperating with them. They are free to enquire.”

Modi too described the searches at the IPL and BCCI offices as a regular survey by the IT department.

“They wanted to know how the franchise system works, the auction system works and how we came about with the teams. They wanted details on the bidding process and we gave them all the details. They were very happy with what they got. We are a public body, so we gave them the documents they wanted,” he said.

On the ongoing controversy, Modi alleged that Tharoor has a “hidden agenda” in the Kochi franchise.

“Will not allow Mr. Tharoor to shadow this up. Mr. Tharoor has different agenda and his agenda will be shut down, believe me. We are doing the best job we can and will continue doing so, irrespective of the hidden agendas of different people. We will not allow the hidden agendas of different people to derail our process,” said Modi.

Asked why he was targetting Pushkar, he said: “No, I am not. It is just that Sunanda Pushkar is being linked and found out about. I am sure the other names will come out sooner of later. It is not about Sunanda Pushkar. We did not know who she was and we don’t care who she is. All we are concerned about is that the shareholders themselves did not know who she was. And that is what worries me.”

On allegations that he was targetting th Kochi owners under the influence of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the IPL commissioner said these were only speculations