The Kochi conundrum turned more confounding on Wednesday after Shailendra Gaikwad, CEO, Rendezvous Sports World, charged Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Lalit Modi with offering him a $50 million bribe to withdraw the franchise.
Coming on a day when all parties in the imbroglio sought to clarify their positions, it’s likely to make the Kochi dispute a no-holds-barred affair. Modi has already decided to move court against Gaikwad.
“Modi was upset when Rendezvous Sports World won the bid for the Kochi team. After we won, Modi offered us a $50 million bribe to back out," Gaikwad said, adding that the motive behind maligning Shashi Tharoor was to get him out of office, which could have scared away investors, leading to a total collapse of the Kochi consortium.
“When we refused [to accept the bribe], Modi started using other means to pressurise us," Gaikwad said. "He asked us to show the contingent liability of the investors, which was not part of the tender process. Finally, he came to my room at 12:30 at night and started asking about Sunanda Pushkar in particular.”
The Rendezvous CEO also clarified that Tharoor had no stake in the team and too much was being made out of Pushkar's stake in the company.
According to documents to which DNA gained access, Pushkar has only 5% of ‘sweat equity’ of the total 25% belonging to Rendezvous. The remaining 75% belongs to other investors. There are seven members in the consortium, three of whom are women.
“Since we are due to give only Rs150 crore to the IPL for the team this year, Sunanda’s share comes to less than Rs4 crore, which is not much considering the amount of effort she is expected to put in," Gaikwad said. "Sunanda is expected to get us good branding, franshise and advertisements. The equity is in lieu of her salary, an arrangement proposed by her.”
According to a rough calculation, she is expected to bring the franchise business worth Rs20-30 crore in the first year itself and is unlikely to get any returns for the first three years.
“This is not free equity. Our company doesn’t have the money, so soft shares were offered. Our partnerships and stakes are all transparent and all documents have been provided as asked by the IPL,” said Gaikwad.
Rendezvous Sports alleged that Modi had put Gaikwad in an uncomfortable position by asking personal details of Pushkar instead of going into her professional details.
“At 12:30 in the night, Modi asks me who is Sunanda? How did I meet her? When did I meet her? And all other details that I do not need to describe but can be understood. This despite the fact that all details about Sunanda, her PAN card, passport number, bank details and relevant papers were attached in the file submitted before bidding. Why did Sunanda draw so much attention in the list and not other women?” Gaikwad wondered.
While Sunanda has reportedly clarified to a news agency that she is “not a proxy for Tharoor”, another member, Mumbai-based Pooja Gulati, also issued a statement that her husband Sushen Jhingan, a senior executive with a multinational bank, had no role to play in Team Kochi.
Gulati, who has been assigned to handle branding and the media as a director for the company, said: “I am an independent businesswoman and my husband has nothing to do with this.”
Meanwhile, it is learnt that Congress president Sonia Gandhi has asked defence minister AK Antony to investigate Tharoor’s role in the episode.
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