Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Anurag Thakur on Wednesday broke his silence over the Supreme Court's latest verdict of possibly slapping perjury charges on him. The apex court had mentioned that Thakur sought outside interferences from the International Cricket Council for halting cricket reforms of the Indian cricket board, as guidelined by the Lodha Committee, and it wasn't acceptable.
During the December 15 hearing at the Supreme Court over the ongoing battle between BCCI and Lodha Committee, amicus curae Gopal Subramaniam mentioned that Thakur lied even after taking oath when he denied that he didn't seek any letter from Shashank Manohar-led ICC.
"No question of perjury, I did not lie to the court," Thakur, dismissing all the allegations, was quoted as saying by ANI on Wednesday.
Chief Justice of India (CJI) TS Thakur mentioned that all Thakur needs to do is "apologise" to escape the perjury charges, but with the conflict of statements from both the parties, it seems the battle is not ceasing in the coming months as well.
"We are inclined to launch prosecution against your client (Anurag Thakur)...once we pronounce on this, your client will have nowhere to go but to jail," the SC informed lawyer Kapil Sibal, fighting for the BCCI over the matter, during the previous hearing.
"And if we say you are guilty of perjury, do you think any other court will grant you any relief? Why are you trying to mislead the court? If you want to escape perjury charges, you ought to apologise. At every stage you have been trying to obstruct. Everyone wants to go around and continue to hold the post even after 70 years. This is such a lucrative business that everyone wants to go on forever," the court added.
Can this lead to the complete removal of the BCCI top brass, including Thakur and Ajay Shirke? Only time will tell now.
