SRK responds to summons on IPL team’s stocks

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Enforcement Directorate is investigating whether the shares were deliberately undervalued during sale

Bollywood superstar SRK recorded his statement before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Mumbai over the alleged undervaluation of shares of his co-owned Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket team Kolkata Knight Riders, official sources said in the city on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, SRK responded to the second summons in six months issued by the ED in mid-October pertaining to the probe into the alleged irregularities in the sale of shares of Knight Riders Sports Pvt. Ltd (KRSPL) to a Mauritius-based company.

The ED is investigating whether the shares of the team were allegedly undervalued as it could be violative of the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema).

Earlier, the ED had served a notice to SRK in May this year but the actor did not appear before the agency.

Prior to that, SRK was quizzed in 2011 for allegations that KKR had received illegal money transferred from certain foreign tax havens.

The company, KRSPL, which runs the KKR team, is jointly owned by SRK actress Juhi Chawla and her husband Jay Mehta.

It is alleged that five million shares of KRSPL were sold to Mehta’s Mauritius-based company, Sea Islands Investments Ltd., in 2008 and were reportedly undervalued between eight to nine times.

In 2011, SRK was directed to provide relevant documents including the purchase of players, revenues, advertising details and the team’s shareholding pattern.

During Tuesday’s questioning, officials said SRK cooperated with the investigators and also provided relevant documents pertaining to the deals.