New Delhi, Apr 14 (PTI): In a new twist to the controversy over Kochi team, its owner Rendezvous Sports today alleged that IPL Commisioner Lalit Modi had offerd a $50 million bribe to withdraw from the race, prompting him to threaten legal action.
"We were offered $50 million by Modi to withdraw from the Kochi team," Shailendra Gaikwad, CEO of the franchise, alleged within hours of Modi telling reporters that there was a question mark over the fate of the new team, secured by a bid of Rs 1533 crore last month.
Terming as "rubbish" the charges, Modi told PTI: "Are they mad. Who will offer them what they say Rs 200 crore. I will take legal recourse."
Asked when he would initiate the legal action, he said, "I am awaiting the clippings (in which Gaikwad had made
allegation that Modi wanted their bid to be withdrawn). Once I have that, I will serve them legal notice... possibly
tomorrow."
Hours after Modi told a press conference that there was a question mark over the owners of the Kochi franchise, Gaikwad hit back at the IPL Commissioner saying that they were being deliberately made to go through a "tough time" because they refused the offer.
"We went through the process in the right manner and won the bid. But within 10 days of winning the bid, Modi offered us $50 million to give away the rights of the IPL franchise," Gaikwad told PTI.
Gaikwad said that the franchise was being targeted because it outbid some big business houses whom Modi wanted to rope in for the subsequent editions of IPL.
"We are being put to an unnecessary process and the reasons are obvious. If we did not have all the papers in
place how could we win the bid. It is unfair now to make us go through these problems," he said.
Modi, on the other hand, wondered as to "why I will offer them the money... the bid had gone for a good sum," and dared Gaikwad to prove the allegations.
"Today they are saying $50 million. Tomorrow they may say some different figures," he said adding that every
communication and conversations, including that of Tharoor wherein the Union Minister asked him not to identify the owners, was minuted in IPL.
Allegations from Rendezvous, which has given a 18 per cent share of its 25 per cent equity in Kochi Team to Sunanda Pushkar -- a friend of Tharoor, came within days of Modi divulging the names of stakeholders in Kochi Team, a tweet that led to a public spat between the Union Minister and IPL official.
Tharoor Tara...rara...