NEW DELHI, Dec 5: India’s Supreme Court on Friday stopped criminal proceedings against the country’s top cricket officials on perjury charges, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.

The Calcutta High Court had last month ordered police to file the charges against six officials of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in a case linked to ex-president Jagmohan Dalmiya.

The officials were alleged to have given false evidence against Dalmiya, a former head of the International Cricket Council (ICC), who was expelled from the BCCI in 2006 accused of financial irregularities.

But the Supreme Court stayed proceedings after accepting the officials’ plea that the Calcutta High Court had not heard their side of the case before passing judgement, PTI reported.

The officials included Sharad Pawar, who takes over as ICC president in 2010, his successor as BCCI chief Shashank Manohar, and former and present secretaries Niranjan Shah and N. Srinivasan.—AFP