Pune IPL bid: Deshpande was to form new company, says Pawar

Baramati, Mahharashtra:

While documents show that a company partly-owned by him had agreed in January to bid for a team for the Indian Premier League (IPL), Union Minister Sharad Pawar told NDTV that just because he owns a stake in City Corporation, it doesn't mean that he is involved in the company's decisions, or that he has a stake in any form in the IPL.

Pawar also clarified that while City Corp's Board sanctioned a bid for the IPL in January, it later  reversed that decision in the belief that the "IPL is not profitable."

Mr Pawar also said that he may have shares in Baramati Grape Industries Limited, a subsidiary of Vijay Mallya's United Breweries Group. But, he also said that business investment does not mean he has a stake in the Bangalore IPL team Royal Challengers owned by Mallya.

NDTV has learnt that a letter written on January 31 this year clearly authorised Aniruddha Deshpande to bid on behalf of the company, and also that the supporting documents submitted for the bid were all company documents, including the balance sheets of City Corp. (Read & Watch: Deshpande bid for company, say BCCI sources | City Corp's Board letter which gives Deshpande go ahead to bid)

A subsequent letter in March that Deshpande claims is proof that the company did not want him to go ahead with the bid, has been described by highly-placed sources as fabricated evidence.

The disclaimers are being issued fast and thick as the controversy around Pawar swells, with the BJP demanding that he resign for not disclosing the details of his involvement with a company that tried to buy a cricket team - a possible conflict of interest, given Pawar's public office.

In March this year, City Corp, a Pune-based company, offered Rs 1200 crore for a team. The bid was in the name of the company. However, after this was revealed earlier this week, Pawar said that the bid was actually made "in a personal capacity by Aniruddha Deshpande, the Managing Director of the firm. This version of events has been zealously backed by Deshpande, who said that after the company's board told him it did not want to participate in the IPL auction, he was granted permission to do this on his own. He says the papers were submitted in City Corp's name because of a techincality, and that if his bid had gone through, he planned to form a new consortium that would own the cricket team.

"The bid was purchased in the name of the company...but I had told the IPL that I will float a separate firm if I win the bid. The January letter was always disclosed...it was in the bid document itself...it is not fabricated. City Corp decided later they will not bid," Deshpande told NDTV. (Read and watch: I had planned to float new company, Deshpande tells NDTV | Deshpande bid for company: BCCI sources)

While Pawar and Deshpande say the board of their company went along with this plan, there could be legal implications. Sources in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs tell NDTV that Deshpande could face serious action-individuals cannot use the legal entity of companies for plans that the firm does not want to be involved with. (Read: Pawar IPL controversy: Company laws broken? | Watch: No action against City Corp unless shareholders complain: Khurshid)

Pawar points out that City Corporation, which offered 1200 crores for a team, did not win its bid.  The franchise was bought by Sahara which paid 1700 crores. If he wanted a company he partly-owns to benefit, Pawar says, surely he would have pushed for its bid to go through. "I was somebody in that organisation. Had I used any influence, do you think it would have lost the bid?" he asked.

Pawar's daughter to NDTV

Earlier, Pawar's daughter and Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule spoke to NDTV on her family's links to the IPL bid.

Sule on City Corp's January letter:

• Firstly we don't sit on the board.
  
• Secondly, you are telling me about a letter in January. In March when the bid was to be submitted, the board clearly said the company should not be part of it. That is what's important.
  
• Lastly, in his bid document Deshpande had clearly said, "If he won then a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) would be formed, the company would not be involved. I stand by what I said, my family is not involved."

Meanwhile, the Left has slammed the Congress saying it was scared of upsetting its allies.

"The government needs NCP keeping in mind the condition they are in," said M K Pandhe, member, CPM Politburo.

The Congress on the other hand says it has nothing whatsoever to comment on the issue.

"Congress has earlier stressed that NCP or Mr Pawar will speak on this. The party has nothing whatsoever to add or to comment," said Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Congress Spokesperson.