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I signed Kochi bid under pressure: Lalit Modi
New Delhi, June 25
Former Indian Premier League (IPL) chief Lalit Modi on Wednesday said he signed the Kochi franchise bid under pressure.
“I signed the Kochi bid under pressure minutes,†Modi tweeted on Wednesday.
Along
with the tweet he attached a letter where details of the insights of
the meeting during the Kochi bid on April 11, 2010 at 12 a.m. were
mentioned.
According tho the letter, the persons present at the
meeting were, Lalit Modi (Chairman IPL), Akhila Kaushik (Legal Advisor,
BCCI), Sundar Raman (COO,IPL), Shailendra Gaikwad (Rendevouz Sports
world Pvt Ltd), Mehul Shah (Anchor Earth Pvt Ltd), Chintan Vora (Anchor
Earth Pvt Ltd), Vipul Shah (Parinee Developers & Properties Pvt
Ltd), Saket Mehta (Anand Shyam Estates & Developers Pvt Ltd),
Kailash Singhal (Filmwaves Combines Pvt Ltd), Vivek Venugopal and Keshav
P T (Filmwaves Combines Pvt Ltd).
The minutes of the meeting with bidder of Kochi Franchise as given by Modi are as follows.
The
meeting was called to validate and authenticate the bid documents
related to the Kochi Franchise (unincorporated JV) bid. The documents
submitted on the day of tender opening in Chennai was found to restrict
the liability of the owners in the shareholders agreement and the
chairman had asked for submission of all valid documents in the presence
of all owners.
The Chairman stated to the consortia of owners
present that he had received a call from Shashi Tharoor, union minister
of state for external affairs, asking him not to probe into the identity
of Sunanda Pushkar, one owners listed in the shareholders agreement.
The
Chairman stated it is the responsibility of the BCCI-IPL to ascertain
the identity of all the owners in order to maintain the integrity of the
league and that of BCCI. He went on to ask the following to Gaikwad,
one of the owners of the consortia
Declare the identity of the
owners listed - Puja Gulati, Sandeep Aggarwal, Vishnu Mohan Prasad and
Sunanda Pushkar. Gaikwad replied Sunanda Pushkar was a family friend
living in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. She is a housewife and that
her husband is in the auto industry. He also said one of the others was a
friend from Silicon Valley and also mentioned Puja has done her MBA.
However he did not know any more details and assured he will send an
e-mail with the details within 24 hours.
The Chairman further
probed if there were any direct or indirect ownerships or connection for
any of the owner members with any politicians, current or past
sportsmen. Gaikwad in reply called his father on the phone to clarify
the same and responded stating that his father said he would call him
back with the details.
Within a couple of minutes, the Chairman
received a call from Shashi Tharoor on his mobile phone asking why he
was asking the connection link of the owner related to Pushkar.
The
chairman though did not have to respond, informed Tharoor that it is
BCCI-IPL's regulations to check the credibility of all investors and
will further investigate if there was any linkages with any unidentified
investors. He said if any of the owners were found to have any
linkages, the BCCI-IPL will have the absolute rights to terminate the
agreement under the clauses as applicable in the ITT.
The
chairman further advised the consortia members that the details related
to player regulation, retention and home ground for the Kochi franchise
will be briefed at a later time
The chairman signed the agreement reserving all rights to exercise as per the ITT and franchise agreement.