Mangalore United Dubs Cheating Allegations Baseless
Media Release
Mangalore, Sep 19: B M Farookh, brother of Moideen Bava has issued clarification against allegations by Santhosh Suvarna, who has alleged Farookh and Moideen Bava of cheating him of Rs 1.10 crore offered to acquire partnership in Mangalore United under Karnataka Premier League (KPL).
Farookh in a written statement to daijiworld.com stated that, “The allegations to the effect that we have agreed to make Santhosh Suvarna a partner of our company is absolutely false and baseless and highly derogatory in nature. Moreover, name of my brother Bava, a political leader, was unnecessarily dragged into the controversy to tarnish his image. We have never ever offered Suvarna of any partnership either in any of our companies or in the team. He was only given the team sponsorship for one year during KPL first season. It appears that Suvarna has filed a complaint against me and my brother Bava alleging that we have cheated him to the tune of Rs 1.10 crore. We were shocked and surprised when we came to know from the news that appeared in visual and print media on September 17, 2010 edition without even affording us an opportunity to clarify the truth.”
Elaborating on the issue, Farookh stated that Fiza Developers owned by him was the sole franchisee for the Mangalore team for five years in the location of Mangalore and Udupi having been granted the franchisee right by the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) including the right to manage the team in the KPL, a 20/20 cricket tourney being the highest bidder. They have also been given the right to have sponsorship for the team name, team sponsorship, logo sponsorship, entitlement to publicity and hospitality.
He stated “Thereby a franchisee agreement was entered into between KSCA and Fiza developers on August 6 2009. As per clause no 7.2 of the agreement, we are entitled to exploit the franchisee rights in any manner as per our discretion. There is no limit for commercial exploitation of franchisee right granted in our favour. One Santosh Suvarna of Global Associates approached us and requested us to be a co-sponsor with respect to the team sponsorship right and entitlement to publicity and hospitality. As per rights conferred on us under the above said clause Suvarna and his company was permitted by us to have the team sponsorship, publicity and hospitality sponsorship for which he agreed to pay us a sum of Rs 1.20 crores. Following this we informed him by a letter dated August 7, 2009 that he can be a co-sponsor for the said limited purpose for a period of one year (first edition of KPL tourney). Accordingly he had also paid Rs 1.10 crores in total in consideration of acquiring team sponsorship rights and publicity and hospitality for the KPL’s first edition.”
Further, “The rights acquired by Fiza Developers are personal and not transferable as per clause no 10.1 under the agreement. As such the question of offering any share in franchisee does not arise. Suvarna also approached us for obtaining sponsorship rights for the second edition of KPL 2010 and since he is a defaulter in the first edition, we asked him to pay the balance of the sponsorship fee and also additional fee for the second edition,” he added.
It can be recalled here that on the inaugural day of Karnataka Premier League season II a controversy was created with a Mangalore businessman Santosh Suvarna alleging that Moideen Bhawa, the owner of KPL team Mangalore United, and Bhawa’s brother B M Farookh had cheated him of Rs 1.10 crore. Following a complaint by Suvarna and case registered thereafter Bangalore court has also directed Cubbon Park police to investigate the matter.