MUMBAI, March 16: The Indian cricket board filed a police complaint against former president Jagmohan Dalmiya on Thursday over alleged financial irregularities concerning bank accounts related to the 1996 World Cup.

“We felt there is a misappropriation of funds and that is why we have lodged a police complaint,” Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Niranjan Shah told reporters.

Shah said some senior office-bearers during Dalmiya’s tenure and some bank officials have also been named in the complaint.

The issue relates to bank transactions of the Pakistan India Lanka Committee (PILCOM) formed for the event jointly staged by the three countries. Dalmiya was its convenor-secretary.

“This is PILCOM and chained to accounts of World Cup 1996,” said Shah, adding that he filed the complaint in a police station in Mumbai, where the BCCI is headquartered.

Dalmiya, a former president of the International Cricket Council (ICC), was ousted as BCCI president by a group led by federal minister Sharad Pawar in bitterly-fought elections in November.

Dalmiya denied the allegations, calling them “false criminal charges”.

“Their pre-determined malicious intent is very clear,” he said in a media statement in Kolkata.

“From time to time, all details as asked for by the present BCCI management have been furnished by me.”

“Although there is no truth in their allegations, it seems the present BCCI management has a single point agenda to malign me,” Dalmiya said.—Reuters