Lying low for sometime, suspended chairman of the Indian Premier League (IPL) Lalit Modi has turned the heat on his successor Chirayu Amin, alleging that the businessman from Baroda had planned to invest in an unsuccessful bid for the Pune IPL team.
In the process, Modi has diverted the heat from his mentor Sharad Pawar, who was on the back foot since a report claimed that he was part-owner of the Pune company concerned.
“Anirudh Deshpande and his consortium clearly stated in their bid documents that they will set up a newco (new company) if they were successful bidders in the IPL auction. Deshpande’s holding was 80% of the equity, Akruti had 10% and Amin 10%,” Modi has revealed.
He claims documentary evidence to establish Amin’s interest in the bid. Deshpande is the managing director of Pune City Corporation, which unsuccessfully bid for the team.
Modi also claims that Pawar had no role in the bid. “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 said.
He added: “He qualified for the bid using the company’s name. He got new investors and a list of investors that included him and the others. Pawar and family have nothing to do with the bidding documents and with the bid that was made by Deshpande. He lost it anyway.”
Deshpande tacitly agrees that he had approached Amin. “I approached 15 parties, including a major media house. So I was looking for investment if I were to win the bid,” he told DNA.
Amin conceded that he wanted to invest in the Pune bid. “I was approached by a group of businessmen to join them in the consortium to bid for the Pune franchise. I agreed to invest up to 10% from one of our associate companies,” Amin said.
But, he said, he had kept the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in the loop. “Before participating in the bid, I wrote a letter to board president Shashank Manohar in this regard. I stated in my letter that clearance would be taken from the BCCI before the investment, if the bid was successful. There was, therefore, transparency at every step.”
