NEW DELHI, April 10: The Indian cricket board on Monday suspended its former president, Jagmohan Dalmiya, who has been accused of mishandling funds during the 1996 World Cup.

Dalmiya has been suspended from all cricket board meetings until a disciplinary panel rules on the allegations against him, the board said.

N. Srinivasan, treasurer of the cricket board, said the decision to suspend Dalmiya was taken due to irregularities in transactions.

Srinivasan announced the board's decision that debars Dalmiya from the board's activities. ''Looking at the gravity of the lapses and allegations, the board's president Sharad Pawar has suspended Dalmiya,'' Srinivasan said.

Dalmiya's suspension came a day after the board's high-powered working committee authorised its president to decide on the future course of action.

Srinivasan said the suspension would be adjudicated by the cricket board's disciplinary panel on a date that has yet to be agreed.

Police in the western Indian metropolis of Mumbai were investigating a complaint by the national cricket board against Dalmiya and five other officials which accuses them of cheating and mishandling US$57,700 during the 1996 World Cup.

The complaint accuses Dalmiya of using the money for ‘personal gains’.

Other defendants in the case against Dalmiya are S. K. Nair, a former secretary of the Indian cricket board, former treasurers Jyoti Bajpai and Kishore Rungta, Dalmiya's personal secretary, K. N. Choudhury, and a manager of the Indian Overseas Bank in Calcutta.

Dalmiya, the first Asian to become president of the International Cricket Council, was the convenor-secretary of PILCOM, the organising body formed to run the 1996 World Cup, which was jointly hosted by India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

On Monday, Dalmiya secured a pre-emptive bail from the Mumbai High Court, which forbade the police from arresting Dalmiya without the court's permission.

The High Court's judge, V. M. Kanade, asked Dalmiya and the three former cricket board officials to each furnish US$555 as surety and to make themselves available for questioning when required by the police.

In February, when the cricket board threatened to file a police complaint, Dalmiya called the allegations ‘completely baseless’.

Lalit Modi, a vice president of the cricket board, has alleged that Dalmiya shut down the bank account and transferred the money to the Cricket Association of Bengal.

The Calcutta-based Cricket Association of Bengal, of which Dalmiya is president, issued a check to compensate the Indian cricket board, but the board's accountant has questioned the validity of the procedure.—AP