Sunanda Pushkar gives up IPL stake

 

PTI A file photo of Sunanda Pushkar

Dubai-based Sunanda Pushkar has given up her stake in the IPL Kochi franchise following a row involving her friend and Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor, her lawyer said on Sunday.

Lawyer Ashish Mehta read out a statement to NDTV news channel saying Ms. Pushkar had “voluntarily” given up the sweat equity Rendezvous Sports World had offered her.

In the statement Ms. Sunanda has said she was shocked to find "certain vested interests" questioning her credentials and because of the "unpleasant publicity" she was opting out.

Ms. Sunanda further said, "as a woman professional, I am shocked to find how easily certain parties with vested interests, questioned my credentials mainly because I am a woman. I, therefore, voluntarily offer to return to Rendezvous the sweat equity they had offered me.

"I do not intend to seek compensation for the efforts I have made so far for them. As a mother of a half-Malayali son, I wish Kerala cricket well and I hope this team succeeds handsomely in IPL-4 and in the years to come," she said.

She had been looking forward to "contributing over the next ten years to building the team's brand, organising events for it and marketing the team in India and the Gulf in particular."

"Given the deeply unpleasant publicity surrounding my involvement however, I can no longer imagine being able to find the enthusiasm required to associate myself with any IPL activity in foreseeable future."

“The decision has nothing to do with Tharoor. This is her own decision,” he said. Rendezvous Sports World is a member of the consortium that won the Kochi Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise.

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IPL row: Sunanda hires lawyer, may file damages

Apr 16: Socialite Sunanda Pushkar has hired a Dubai-based lawyer and is likely to file for defaming her image in the IPL controversy.

Pushkar is facing allegations that she got free equity worth 70 crore rupees in the the Kochi franchise with the help of close friend Shashi Tharoor, who is Minister of State for External Affairs.

Ashish Mehta, the lawyer, said Pushkar has asked for his legal assistance.
"I write to confirm that Sunanda Pushkar has engaged my professional services," Mehta said in a written statement lat night.
He said his client's image had been tarnished, and they would "seriously consider filing for damages".
Mehta rubbished reports that Pushkar was a beautician, spa owner or a socialite are untrue. He insisted media has misrepresented her client and that facts needed to be put straight.
According to sources, Pushkar made her fortune as an executive of a state-owned company in Dubai and has never been in the spa business.
"All this spa business is untrue. She has been an entrepreneur and businesswomen for long and that has brought her wealth," an ex-colleague of hers was quoted by news agency as saying.

http://news.oneindia.in/2010/04/16/ipl-row-sunanda-hires-lawyer-may-file-damages.html

Sunanda Pushkar breaks silence

 

Sunanda Pushkar, who has been linked to the Indian Premier League (IPL) Kochi team controversy, has blasted her critics and denied acting as a proxy for her friend and Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor.

In a hard-hitting statement, Pushkar accused the media of ignoring her professional background and international business experience and focussing "obsessively on my personal life as if a woman cannot be capable of professional or financial success."

"My own business interests and assets are substantial, and efforts to besmirch Tharoor by presenting me as a proxy for him are personally insulting for me as a woman and as a friend."

"I have built up a respectable and successful career while coping with widowhood and raising a child as a single mother. Yet I have been reduced to a caricature in the media, portrayed with inaccuracies and falsehoods," she said.

Text: IANS

Images: Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor with Sunanda Pushkar at a book release function in New Delhi on March 4, 2010. (Photograph copyright PTI)

http://sify.com/news/Sunanda-Pushkar-breaks-silence-imagegallery-national-keooNSiafjh.html

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I am not a proxy for Tharoor, says Sunanda Pushkar

 

New Delhi: Sunanda Pushkar, who has been linked to the Indian Premier League (IPL) Kochi team controversy, on Wednesday blasted her critics and denied acting as a proxy for her friend and Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor.
In a hard-hitting statement made available to IANS, Pushkar accused the media of ignoring her professional background and international business experience and focussing "obsessively on my personal life as if a woman cannot be capable of professional or financial success.”
"My own business interests and assets are substantial, and efforts to besmirch Tharoor by presenting me as a proxy for him are personally insulting for me as a woman and as a friend.”
"I have built up a respectable and successful career while coping with widowhood and raising a child as a single mother. Yet I have been reduced to a caricature in the media, portrayed with inaccuracies and falsehoods," she said.
Action against Tharoor only after checking facts: PM
Pushkar said she was issuing the statement "to set the record straight about my role in the public controversy surrounding the Kerala IPL Team franchise".
The controversy erupted after Indian Premier League (IPL) Commissioner Lalit Modi revealed the ownership pattern of Kochi IPL, stating that Pushkar, a friend of Tharoor, owned free equity in Rendezvous Sports, which is a part owner of IPL Kochi team.
Modi also accused Tharoor of asking him not to reveal the ownership details -- a charge denied by the minister.
Pushkar said she was approached last year by Rendezvous "inviting me to associate myself with them as a consultant in their various sporting activities and particularly in their potential bid to acquire the franchise of an IPL team.
"I had previously been approached by Karim Morani of Kolkata Knight Riders to join them in a similar capacity and had regretted that the timing was not convenient for me.
"In view of my extensive international experience as a business executive, marketing manager and entrepreneur, I was invited to assist Rendezvous particularly in the areas of fund-raising, networking, elsewhere; event management; and brand building.
"Because this is a start-up effort, I was told that in lieu of a salary they would grant me minor equity in Rendezvous in return for my efforts - which is a common practice across the world for start-ups and projects of this nature.
"I should stress that I have accepted no salary or expenses and am conscious that the equity remains only on paper for the foreseeable future.
"However, with the equity comes an opportunity to participate in the management and promotion of Rendezvous and in particular of its IPL team, a challenge I welcome."
She said she had "lived a life of integrity and committed no crime, yet I am treated in a humiliating manner. My parents, friends and family members have been hounded by intrusive journalists.
"My personal life is nobody else's business and if I have a marriage to announce, I will do it myself, rather than leave it to strangers. I would request the media to respect my privacy."

http://sify.com/news/i-am-not-a-proxy-for-tharoor-says-sunanda-pushkar-news-national-keooacgdgib.html

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