SC slams Anurag Thakur, says he may land in jail if perjury proved

The Supreme Court on Thursday came down hard on BCCI president Anurag Thakur and said the Indian cricket board’s chief “appears to have prima facie committed perjury”. It further noted that Thakur might land in jail if perjury is proved.

The Apex Court also reserved its order on replacing BCCI top brass with a panel of administrators. The order, however, is likely to be delivered before Chief Justice of India T S Thakur retires early January. The Apex Court asked the Indian cricket board if it has any name for the post of administrator, and gave it one week’s time for the same.

The amicus curiae in the case, when asked by the Apex Court if Thakur has committed perjury or not, said: “Thakur lied on oath to Supreme Court, in his affidavit he said he sought Shashank Manohar’s opinion as BCCI chairman”. It further noted that Thakur “obstructed reform process”.

On Monday, the Supreme Court had dismissed BCCI’s plea seeking a review of its July 18 verdict directing it to implement the recommendations of Justice R M Lodha panel on massive structural reforms in the cricket body.

“We have examined the grounds urged in support of the prayer for review. We find no error apparent on the face of the record to warrant recall of our order dated July 18, 2016. The review petitions are, accordingly, dismissed,” a Bench of CJI Thakur and Justice S A Bobde said.

The order was pronounced in the chambers on November 10 but was made public on the Apex Court website recently.

In the review petition, BCCI had demanded an open court hearing and besides the cricketing body, several others, including veteran cricket administrators Niranjan Shah and Chandu Borde, have sought re-examination of the verdict.