Don't harass me on 'slap-gate', says Lalit Modi

New Delhi - Former Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Lalit Modi Friday asked the media not to harass him over the “slap-gate” issue between S. Sreesanth and Harbhajan Singh.

The “slap-gate” happened in 2008 when Sreesanth, playing for Kings XI Punjab, was slapped by the then Mumbai Indians skipper Harbhajan Singh. Subsequently, the off-spinner was banned for the remainder of the tournament.

“Media channels, please stop harassing me for a byte. Let me enjoy my weekend. I have said what need to via my twitter feed. I have not taken any media calls on this and will not do so. Whatever needs to be said will be here or my blog on this issue,” Modi tweeted.

“It’s a sensitive issue. & shld B treated as such. Parties involved have bn punished. i’m sure they realise thr mistakes. We move on. I have the only copy of slap gate video. Will examine whether to release or not in the next few weeks,” Modi tweeted.

Sreesanth earlier Friday alleged that the IPL withheld the “real video” of the incident between him and Harbhajan.

In a series of tweets, Sreesanth said Harbhajan had not slapped him but was a “backstabbing person”, and received “no support whatsoever” from “selfish” people involved in the issue even though they knew “it was not my fault”.

He was scared to speak out earlier, Sreesanth said, but now wants the “world to know what happened”. The truth would be revealed by the video, which was kept “in hiding” by the IPL, he said.

Sreesanth’s Twitter rant comes a day after an ugly spat between Gautam Gambhir and his Delhi colleague Virat Kohli during an Indian Premier League game in Bangalore was compared to the infamous incident in the tournament’s inaugural edition in 2008.

Later in the day, some of the tweets were deleted from Sreesanth’s account.