Dalmiya arrested, granted bail immediately

Jagmohan Dalmiya, the former ICC and BCCI president, was arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police on Wednesday for alleged embezzlement of funds from the 1996 World Cup jointly hosted by India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It was a "technical arrest", his lawyer, Satish Maneshinde, said, and he was granted bail immediately on a surety of Rs 25,000 ($600).

The case came up before judge RG Wankhede, who fixed the next date of hearing on April 11.

"It's a voluminous chargesheet and we'll take some time to study the report," Maneshinde said, calling it a political vendetta. "On several occasions the present administrators asked Mr Dalmiya to accede to their demands and tender an apology. All the people who were in the board when Mr Dalmiya made the accounts at the AGM 10 years ago like Mr [Inderjit Singh] Bindra and Mr [Niranjan] Shah...they all were present when the bills were passed. Despite that the police now say they have unearthed something serious."

The arrest followed a chargesheet filed by the EOW that accused Dalmiya of misappropriating funds to the tune of Rs 2.9 crore (around US$723,000). It alleged that Dalmiya diverted funds from a bank account in Kolkata that was originally set up for paying legal fees towards various other expenses.

The alleged misuse of PILCOM (Pakistan-India-Sri Lanka committee, which helped organise the 1996 World Cup) funds came to light in February 2006 after the BCCI constituted a three-member committee headed by N Srinivasan, the board's treasurer, to review the accounts.

On Monday, Dalmiya had dismissed the allegations as a ploy by the BCCI to unsettle him ahead of the upcoming Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) elections, which he is contesting. In July 2007, the Calcutta High Court stayed the BCCI's expulsion of Dalmiya and said he was free to contest the CAB elections.