New Delhi, June 4 (IANS) Lalit Modi, suspended chairman and commissioner of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Friday said Indian Cricket board vice-president Chirayu Amin was part of a consortium that bid for the Pune franchise.
Even as Modi defended Sharad Pawar, former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), saying he had neither direct or indirect involvement in the Pune bid, he alleged that Amin, the interim chairman of the IPL, was part of a consortium that had failed to win the bid.
Media reports Friday suggested that the bid document was bought in the name of a Pune-based company, City Corporation, in which Sharad Pawar’s family had a 16 percent stakeholding.
Modi said managing director of City Corporation Aniruddha Deshpande had listed Amin as one of the partners of the proposed franchise had it won the Pune bid.
‘Mr Deshpande’s holding was 80 percent of the equity, Akruti had 10 percent and Mr Chirayu Amin 10 percent,’ Modi told television channel CNN-IBN.
‘He (Pawar) has no direct or indirect interest in any of the teams without any doubt. He has been misconstrued in the media by some vested interests. He had absolutely zero interest.’
A leading newspaper Friday claimed that Pawar and his family held over roughly 16 percent in City Corporation that bid Rs.1,176 crore ($261.1 million) for the Pune franchise in March but lost out to Sahara’s Rs.1,703 crore ($370m) bid.
The paper claimed Pawar, his wife Pratibha and daughter Supriya Sule together own 3.36 million shares out of a total of 20.7 million shares. The shares are split between two companies — Lap Finance and Consultancy Pvt Ltd and Namratta Film Enterprises Pvt Ltd — both of which are wholly owned by Pawar, his wife and daughter.
Modi confirmed Pawar’s claim that Deshpande had bid for the IPL team in his individual capacity and he had set up a consortium for the purpose.
‘Mr. Anirudh Deshpande and his consortium clearly stated in their bid documents that they will set up a Newco if they were successful bidders in the IPL auction,’ tweeted Modi.
‘Aniruddha, who was the key promoter of the Pune-based City Corporation consortium, bid only for qualification purpose as an individual at that point of time. He has qualified for the bid using the company’s name,’ Modi said.
‘He got new investors and the list of investors that include him and the other people.’
‘Pawar and family has nothing to do with the bidding documents and with the bid that was made by Mr Deshpande. He lost it anyway.’
‘We knew very clearly that Mr Pawar and his family were not involved directly or indirectly in the bidding process. As far as the stakeholders were concerned, we knew who they were.’
Pawar Friday dismissed reports of his family’s involvement in the City Corporation’s bid for the Pune IPL team.
