E-Mail details show interest of another Union Minister in IPL

New Delhi, Apr 22 (ANI): The Indian Premier League (IPL) scam took a new turn on Thursday, as details of mail sent from Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Praful Patel's office to former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor were leaked to the media.

A day after Patel claimed that he had nothing to do with the IPL, it has emerged that his personal secretary had sent a mail to Tharoor in March, with a document containing projections of new franchisee valuation in the IPL.

It was reported that, Champa Bharadwaj, personal secretary to Patel, forwarded a mail from her official ID to Tharoor's personal ID, hours after IPL Chief Executive officer Sunder Raman sent the same document to Patel's daughter Poorna Patel, who is IPL's hospitality manager.

Bharadwaj, sent a mail to Tharoor on March 19, two days before the bids were opened and Tharoor supported Kochi team sprang a surprise by making the second highest bid.

Meanwhile, Patel claimed that his secretary was only forwarding information requested by Tharoor.

"Shashi andI 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 know what information has been passed." he said.

"If I was a bidder, why would I help out a competitor with information," he added.

Poorna Patel admitted that she had forwarded the mail to her father's secretary, but said she was only following Raman's instructions.

" Sunder had given me certain instructions and I was merely following that, Other than that, I have no idea," Poorna said.

Raman on his part, said he sent it to to Poorna, as a key member of the IPL team, but did not know why she forwarded it to Patel's office. (ANI)