New Delhi: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has briefed the Prime Minister about the investigation against owners of IPL teams and how bids for franchisees were made.
CNN-IBN learns Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Mukherjee also discussed the names of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders Praful Patel and Supriya Sule being drawn into the IPL controversy.
Patel was drawn into the controversy when he confirmed media reports that his private secretary had e-mailed Shashi Tharoor documents containing projections of the new franchisee valuations in the IPL. Tharoor had to quit as the junior foreign minister because of controversy over his alleged role in bids for the Kochi IPL team.
The confirmation comes just two days after Patel categorically denied any role in the Indian Premier League. However, it is now emerging that Patel's secretary Champa Bharadwaj had forwarded a mail to Tharoor's personal mail account on March 19, two days before the bids were opened.
It happened hours after IPL CEO Sundar Raman sent the document to the Minister's daughter and IPL hospitality manager Poorna Patel. The Kochi consortium surprisingly made the second-highest bid.
Patel now says that it was Shashi Tharoor who had sought his help. "Shashi Tharoor called me because he was putting together a team. He wanted me to speak to Lalit Modi and help him out. This has got nothing to do with IPL. This is a needless controversy," claims Patel.
On Wednesday, Supriya Sule, daughter of NCP chief and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, denied reports that her husband had made a failed bid for the team.
PTI reports Sule, a Lok Sabha MP, on Thursday alleged her was being defamed and would talk to his lawyers on legal action.
