She withdrew close to $1 million from her IPL team in a 'panic transaction' that raises more questions than it answers
The Justice Lodha Committee may have shut the doors on Raj Kundra from associating with Indian cricket for life, yet glaring suspicions regarding his wife and business partner Shilpa Shetty still persist.
Documents accessed by dna show that Shilpa Shetty's financial dealings with Rajasthan Royals have more to it than meets the eye. Shetty seems to have panicked days after the Mudgal report and withdrew close to $1 million from her IPL team in a transaction that raises more questions than it answers.
After Shetty and Kundra picked up a 11.7% stake in the Rajasthan team in 2009, Shetty gave an advance of Rs 5.7 crore to Jaipur International Cricket Ltd (JIPL), the holding company of the Rajasthan IPL team. The amount was given by Shetty in her personal capacity in 2010. Rajasthan Royals had described the Rs 5.7-crore payment by Shetty as "an advance paid by her to procure certain sponsorship rights, given her relationship with some potential sponsors."
However, in what seems to be a panic induced transaction, just days after the Mudgal Committee report was submitted on February 10, 2014, Shilpa Shetty pocketed back the money she had "advanced" in 2010 to JIPL. The entire amount was paid back by JIPL through a letter dated February 19, 2014, barely a week after the Mudgal report was submitted. Company documents show that Shetty was paid back the money because "there were no substantial commercial gains and the agreement with Shilpa Shetty was cancelled and the money paid back in February 2014."
The reasons for the panic induced transaction is still unclear. However, the Mudgal Committee report on spot fixing and multi-million dollar betting in IPL-6 released just days before the transaction had enough reasons for Shetty and Kundra to be unnerved. The report had severely indicted the husband-wife duo. It said, "There are materials on record which justify an appropriate investigation to ascertain the culpability of Raj Kundra and his wife Shilpa Shetty in placing bets as owner of a franchisee in IPL."
Justice Lodha also pointed out in his news conference how the husband-wife duo was let off the hook by a shoddy probe of the Jaipur police. The verdict may have been against Kundra, but if Justice Mudgal is to be believed, Shilpa Shetty's role was as dubious as her partner.
An email sent to Raghu Iyer, CEO of Rajasthan Royals did not elicit a response. An SMS sent to Shilpa Shetty was replied with a smiley.
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