Mumbai, May 25: BCCI president N. Srinivasan's disgruntled son Ashwin, 44, has alleged that Srinivasan's son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan had always links with Chennai and Dubai bookies.
“Guru had several connections with known bookies from Chennai and Dubai and was regularly in touch with them even before the IPL started.” Ashiwn told the Mumbai newspaper DNA.
“What began as a relatively smaller side-business became a full-fledged one over the years”, hesaid.
Meiyappan is a Chettiar, a community known for its affinity to trade and business.
Ashwin said: “He has been steadily increasing his foothold over my father's business. Publicly, his wife and my sister Rupa is an executive director in India Cements, my father's company, and Guru has agreed to merely remain the head of Chennai Super Kings.”
Ashwin has an MBA in finance from Cornell University.
He has also raised questions about his father's “questionable” decision to invest in a small aircraft, which needed refuelling, when he could own one.
“On all his trips, to and from anywhere abroad, isn't it strange that the mighty N Srinivasan has to waste four hours in Dubai every time while his aircraft refuels? And mind you, the fuel halt will not be at Kuwait, Sharjah or anywhere else,” the son of BCCI's most powerful man disclosed.
“Who are these regular golf partners he plays with on these halts?”, asks Ashwin.
Ashwin has alleged that Guru is deliberately poisoning his parents' mind to ensure that the rift between them widens.
Ashwin is a same-sex guy and his partner is Avi Mukherjee. The couple had alleged that police picked them up from Escobar, an upmarket Bandra restaurant-pub, on April 30, 2012, and beat them with iron rods at the behest of Srinivasan.
Calling his brother-in-law ungrateful, Ashwin said: “He keeps raising my drug-addiction problem to tell people how he was pushed into lending a helping hand in my father's businesses when even he knows that I am more qualified and experienced than him.”
Ashwin reveals that his parents were unhappy when Guru and Rupa started dating each other after meeting at the Madras Club while playing pool.
“They were livid because he was not a Brahmin, but a Chettiar. My mother, Chitra, threatened to disown Rupa, but my father, who cursed Guru and his family to the skies after gulping down five scotches every evening, had no qualms joining him over golf given the clout of his family-run AVM Group,” said Ashwin.
Meiyappan's family owns the AVM group.
According to him, his parents were in talks with chess champion Viswanathan Anand for marrying Rupa, but she eventually married Guru.
“When my maternal uncle Shankar passed away, my parents did not want to call them for the last rites, but I persisted with my mother and saw to it that they were called,” he revealed.
“Though Rupa and Guru have not spoken to me since I fell foul with my parents, I feel no rancour towards them. But how can I tolerate him maligning me for a drug problem from a decade ago to manipulate my parents?”
