Patel's secy mailed Tharoor on new franchisee

New Delhi, Apr 22: In what could spell trouble for the Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, Economic Times (ET) reported on Thursday, Apr 22, that his personal secretary had mailed a document containing projections of new franchisee valuations in IPL to former Minister of State for External Affairs, Shashi Tharoor.

The report said that Patel's personal secretary Champa Bharatwaj had forwarded a mail from her official email id to Tharoor"s personal id, after a similar document was sent to Patel's daughter and IPL hospitality manager Poorna Patel by IPL CEO Sundar Raman.

The report came two days after Patel denied having any role in IPL after Tharoor had to step down from his office for allegedly misusing his office to help his Sunanda Pushkar get 'free' equity worth Rs 70 crores in the Kochi IPL franchise.

The emails, which were reportedly seen by the reporters of ET, were sent to Tharoor at 10:06 pm on Mar 19 by Bharatwaj, two days ahead of bids for the new IPL teams.

In his interview with NDTV, Patel disassociated himself from IPL, saying that his daughter, who is working as a junior intern with one of the IPL teams was his only connection with IPL.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is said to have asked for details on Patel's involvement in IPL.

OneIndia News