Was there really a big political cover-up behind the 2010 IPL Kochi scandal, as Lalit Modi is claiming? Is the story of Sunanda Pushkar’s alleged equity and ‘shadow shareholders’ still an unsolved mystery? Is there any hidden truth buried in the allegations of pressure, threat and use of power against Shashi Tharoor? Was the collapse of the Kochi franchise just a business failure?
Lalit Modi IPL Controversy 2010: Former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner Lalit Modi has made the biggest and most sensational claim so far regarding the nearly one and a half decade old Kochi Tuskers scandal. Lalit Modi, living in the UK, has directly alleged in an interview that during the political storm of 2010, the entire machinery of the Congress party and the then UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi herself had come to the rescue of party leader Shashi Tharoor. Lalit Modi claims that a huge ‘cover-up’ (conspiracy to suppress the matter) of Congress was working behind this entire controversy.
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Why did Kochi consortium bid a whopping $350 million?
The most exciting and suspenseful part of the story begins when bids were being made for new IPL teams in the year 2010. According to Lalit Modi, the Kochi consortium acquired the franchise by making a huge bid of $350 million, but its financial model was completely questionable.
That midnight phone call: ‘If I ask Sunanda’s name, I will raid the house in the morning’
The suspense deepened when in the papers an unknown woman named ‘Sunanda Pushkar’ was being given 25% free equity (free shares) of the company without any investment. When Lalit Modi raised questions on the identity of this ‘shadow shareholder’ and refused to sign the franchise agreement, he directly received a call from the then Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor. Modi claims that Tharoor told him over the phone, “Lalit, don’t ask about Sunanda, she is my good friend. If you ask too many questions, I will conduct a raid at your place in the morning.” In response to this, Modi slammed the phone.
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Share worth Rs 10 becomes Rs 1 lakh overnight!
Lalit Modi exposed this entire game and said that on the day Kochi got the team, the value of Sunanda Pushkar’s share of Rs 10 had increased to Rs 1 lakh overnight. When Modi tried to stop this financial fraud, a maze was created against him in the power corridors of Delhi.
Games behind the scenes of Sonia Gandhi and Ahmed Patel?
Lalit Modi alleges that Sonia Gandhi herself was taking command from behind the scenes to save Shashi Tharoor. Modi claimed, “I was being attacked from all sides. I was getting calls from Ahmed Patel, who was called Chanakya of that era, and the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. Rajiv Shukla used to come to me and say do this, do that.” Modi clearly says that the entire government was busy hiding a corrupt financial model and giving political shield to Tharoor.
Who pressurized Lalit Modi to sign at midnight?
The suspense of this controversy does not end here. Lalit Modi has also made serious allegations against the then BCCI President Shashank Manohar. According to Modi, during a late night meeting in Bengaluru, Shashank Manohar put immense pressure on him to immediately sign the documents of the Kochi franchise.
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‘Shashank Manohar forced me, I wrote the truth on the file’
Modi asked for time till morning, but Manohar did not agree. Ultimately, under immense pressure, Modi signed, but wrote a note on the file that he was not signing on his own will, but under pressure from the Speaker. It is noteworthy that after this controversy escalated, Tharoor had to resign from the post of minister in April 2010 and in 2011, the Kochi franchise was suspended by the BCCI.
That ‘Twitter chat’ and the last leaf just before Sunanda Pushkar’s death
Lalit Modi has also made a mysterious revelation about Sunanda Pushkar, who was found dead in a luxurious hotel in Delhi on January 17, 2014. He claimed that Sunanda was chatting with him on Twitter on the morning of her death. Sunanda had asked Modi, “Should I tell all this (the truth of the Kochi scandal) to everyone?” To which Modi said, “Yes, definitely tell.” But a few hours later he died suspiciously.
What did Lalit Modi say about Sushma Swaraj?
At the end of the interview, when Modi was asked about his relations with BJP leaders like Vasundhara Raje and late Union Minister Sushma Swaraj and whether he got emergency travel documents for Portugal, he called it a purely humanitarian matter. Modi said emotionally, “My wife had a brain tumor and was fighting the last battle of her life. For the sake of family, a person gives up even the last card in his pocket. For me, that card was Sushma Swaraj, whom I knew and I used that last chance to save my wife’s life.”