The Corporate Affairs Ministry on Mondaysaid it is collecting information on all franchisees of IPL teams and doing their due diligence. "My ministry is merely collecting information that we should have in the normal course of those companies that are franchisee companies," Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told reporters in Delhi. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), he added, was not conducting any probe but was only doing the due diligence as lot of questions have been raised publically about the ownership pattern of the franchisee companies.
"My ministry is not conducting a probe.... Because a lot of questions are raised publicly...we should do our due diligence," Khurshid said. The MCA, on Wednesday last, had directed the Registrar of Companies (RoC) to collect within a week all details on IPL franchises, including the bidding process, sweat equity, memorandum of association and also franchise agreement. The Ministry would try to find out whether the "equity structure (of IPL franchises) is hazy or not...filings are available. If there is any discrepancy, we will look into it," Khurshid had said.
The probe follows the controversy over ownership of the Kochi IPL franchise, where Rendezvous Sports World had given 19 per cent of the 25 per cent stake held by it to Sunanda Pushkar, a close friend of Shashi Tharoor, who resigned from Union Ministry in the face of allegations that he had misused his official position. The RoCs, according to sources, would have to provide details on 10 franchisees, including Kolkata Knight Riders' owner Red Chillies Entertainment, Mumbai Indians' India Sports Win, Sahara Adventure Sports Group of the Pune team, Kochi team's Rendezvous Sports, owners Chennai Super Kings India Cements and that of Royal Challengers Bangalore's GMR Sports. Following the controversy over ownership of the IPL teams, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) suspended IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi and today appointed Chirayu Amin as the interim Chairman. PTI
