New Delhi: Legendary Sachin Tendulkar and batting maestro VVS Laxman were Wednesday served notices by BCCI's Ombudsman-cum-Ethics Officer D K Jain for their alleged 'conflict of interest' by serving as mentors of IPL franchise as well as member of Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC).

Tendulkar is Mumbai Indians' mentor and Laxman is in the same capacity for Sunrisers Hyderabad.

This is the third case of conflict of interest allegation being filed after former skipper Sourav Ganguly had to appear before Justice (retd.) Jain for deposition for his triple role as CAB president, CAC member as well as advisor of Delhi Capitals.

All three were part of CAC that picked the senior national coach Ravi Shastri in July 2017, which was their last meeting.

However it has been learnt from BCCI sources that Tendulkar has no financial contract with Mumbai Indians and all three are doing voluntary service as members of the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC).

"Since Ganguly was issued notice, the Ombudsman probably issued the notices to both Tendulkar and Laxman also. But I can confirm that Tendulkar doesn't take a single penny from Mumbai Indians. He is just doing voluntary service. Also in BCCI, he enever got paid for his services as CAC," a senior BCCI official privy to development told PTI.

Justice Jain in his notice (in possession of PTI) has asked both Tendulkar and Laxman to file written responses to the allegations by April 28 and has also simultaneously asked BCCI to file their response.

The complaint was filed by Sanjeev Gupta, a member of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA).

AS per the notice to Tendulkar and Laxman, Justice Jain wrote: "A complaint has been received by the Ethics Officer of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (for short "the BCCI") under Article 39 of the Rules and Regulations of the BCCI, regarding certain acts, allegedly constituting as 'conflict of interest' on your part.

"You may file your written response to the accompanying Complaint, supported by duly executed affidavit, on or before 28th April 2019, with the Office of the Ethics Officer, BCCI, Mumbai for further proceedings in the matter," he further stated.

The Ombudsman stated that failure to respond will mean that no further chance to explain their points of view will be given.

"On your failure to respond to the present notice, the Ethics Officer shall be constrained to proceed in your absence, without giving any further opportunity of filing a response to the Complaint, to you.

"A copy of this Notice is also being sent to the BCCI, to enable it to file its response to the accompanying complaint, in writing on or before 28th April 2019 before the Ethics Officer," Justice Jain wrote.

Tendulkar, who celebrated his 46th birthday on Wednesday, and Laxman were not available for comments.

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



Bengaluru (PTI): The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has collected over Rs 19 lakh as a penalty from 10,069 passengers who were penalised for travelling without tickets and occupying seats exclusively reserved for ladies in the last three months, officials said on Thursday.

The checking staff of BMTC have intensified checking of buses operated in and around Bengaluru City to detect ticketless travelling by passengers, they said.

According to BMTC, during the months of August, September and October, the checking staff checked 57,219 trips and penalised 8,891 ticketless passengers by collecting Rs 17,96,030 as penalty and 5,268 cases were booked against conductors for their dereliction of duty.

During the same period, they have also penalised 1,178 male passengers for occupying seats exclusively reserved for lady passengers and imposed fines by collecting Rs 1,17,800 in accordance with the KMV (Karnataka Motor Vehicle) Rules of the MV Act of 1988.

"In total, during the months of August, September and October, 10,069 passengers were penalised and Rs 19,13,830 was collected," the BTMC officials stated.