We were intimated that all our money is being cut off. We’ll now be left with nothing for the rent, transport, health care etc, said Ashwin.
After a DNA report on Ashwin, son of BCCI president N Srinivasan, accusing his father of being a homophobic and using of his clout to unleash a cycle of violence against him and his partner Avi Mukherjee to ‘cure’ him of homosexuality, the rift between the father and son has widened.
“We were intimated that all our money is being cut off. We’ll now be left with nothing for the rent, transport, health care etc,” complains Ashwin, adding, “It is not like we were wastrels who wanted to live off my father. I’m an MBA from Cornell university in Finance and my partner once headed creative departments in Grey’s worldwide, RK Swamy/BBDO’s and Mudra DDB.”
“After years of violence, persecution and administering of drugs, we’ve become totally professionally and socially isolated and dependent on the very man we want to get away from. Can you begin to understand the hurt and humiliation over how much power he still has over me and my partner?” he says.
Though Avi is irritated with the umpteenth TV crew landing up to follow the DNA report, Ashwin tells him it is necessary.
“I know my father. This is the only way to hit him where it hurts the most.” He now says he wants to take this fight to the finish.
“I am not going to give up without fighting. All I am asking for is my rightful share. I’ve lost the best years of my life in my 20s and 30s and I will make sure my father pays for it.” Bitter about his father’s latest decision to cut off his money, he says, “If the great N Srinivasan wants a messy war, I’ll give it to him.”
As he hobbles around the apartment with his hurt feet, he weeps as he recounts the nightmarish beginning of the violence in 2002. “I was cajoled into leaving Mumbai for Chennai saying that I needed to sign some papers. No sooner had I left the Taj, Colaba, where we were staying, two men called Prakash and Jagdeesan, who claimed they were Tamil Nadu CID police, barged into the room and brought Avi to Chennai too on air tickets booked by my father’s company ICL. They took us to the ICL guest house, stripped and beat us and made us lick their shoes in front of my father’s confidante Shankaran.”
As he gets worked up, he opens up more on what he calls the financial wrong-doings of his father. “He’s made piles of money in my name using my status as NRI for nine years with the help of his late friend Peter Tudball who headed the Baltic exchange. Several offshore companies were started.” Ashwin mentions one Belthorn Investment Group Ltd. “I was shown owning 5,000 shares but the declaration shows that only my parents were allowed to transfer, deal with or dispose them off.”
While providing DNA copies of the same, he adds, “All the money from Belthorn was then routed into another company Induspin illegally robbing the exchequer of crores.”
Meanwhile, Ashok Row Kavi has told DNA he is willing to mediate between the BCCI chief and Ashwin. “I will be glad to see them reconcile. But for that, both Ashwin and his father have to walk that extra mile. The current deadlock only generates more and more hurt and bitterness.”
Repeated attempts to reach N Srinivsan and his wife Chitra for comment drew a blank.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}