I didn't give Tharoor any IPL insider info: Praful
NCP leader and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has denied sharing any inside information on the Indian Premier League (IPL) Kochi bidding.
Sources close to the Patel claim that IPL team valuations emailed to Shashi Tharoor by Praful's secretary last month were not classified, and this information was also available to other bidders.
This comes after a report in the Economic Times (ET) that says the documents in the email sent by Praful's personal secretary Champa Bharadwaj to Tharoor on March 19, just two days before the bids for the two new IPL teams opened, contained projections of new franchise valuations of the IPL.
Economic Times (ET) report says the mail was sent just two hours after the same document was sent by the IPL CEO to Praful's daughter and IPL hospitality manager Poorna Patel. The Economic Times report has also quoted Poorna as saying that she was only acting under IPL CEO Sundar Raman's instructions: "Sundar had given me certain instructions and I was merely following that. Other than that I have no idea."
But Raman denies this, the ET report says, quoting him as saying that he had sent it to Poorna Patel as a key member of the IPL team, but did not know why she forwarded it to the minister's office.
Two days after this document was forwarded to Shashi Tharoor, the Kochi consortium supported by him sprang a surprise by making the second-highest bid.
The newspaper quotes Praful Patel as saying that his secretary was only forwarding the information requested by Shashi Tharoor.
"Shashi and I have been friends and he did ask me whether I could help him with some information in the capacity of a friend, since he was putting together a team from Kochi. I spoke to Lalit and told him that Shashi wanted some information. Beyond that, I don't know what information has been passed. If I was a bidder, why would I help out a competitor with information?" he told the newspaper.
NCP leader and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has denied sharing any inside information on the Indian Premier League (IPL) Kochi bidding.
Sources close to the Patel claim that IPL team valuations emailed to Shashi Tharoor by Praful's secretary last month were not classified, and this information was also available to other bidders.
This comes after a report in the Economic Times (ET) that says the documents in the email sent by Praful's personal secretary Champa Bharadwaj to Tharoor on March 19, just two days before the bids for the two new IPL teams opened, contained projections of new franchise valuations of the IPL.
Economic Times (ET) report says the mail was sent just two hours after the same document was sent by the IPL CEO to Praful's daughter and IPL hospitality manager Poorna Patel. The Economic Times report has also quoted Poorna as saying that she was only acting under IPL CEO Sundar Raman's instructions: "Sundar had given me certain instructions and I was merely following that. Other than that I have no idea."But Raman denies this, the ET report says, quoting him as saying that he had sent it to Poorna Patel as a key member of the IPL team, but did not know why she forwarded it to the minister's office.
Two days after this document was forwarded to Shashi Tharoor, the Kochi consortium supported by him sprang a surprise by making the second-highest bid.
The newspaper quotes Praful Patel as saying that his secretary was only forwarding the information requested by Shashi Tharoor.
"Shashi and I have been friends and he did ask me whether I could help him with some information in the capacity of a friend, since he was putting together a team from Kochi. I spoke to Lalit and told him that Shashi wanted some information. Beyond that, I don't know what information has been passed. If I was a bidder, why would I help out a competitor with information?" he told the newspaper.
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