New twist in IPL saga: Praful Patel connection

It was reported that,Champa Bharadwaj,personal secretary to Patel,forwarded a mail from her official ID to Tharoor’s personal ID,hours after IPL Chief Executive officer Sunder Raman sent the same document to Patel’s daughter Poorna Patel,who is IPL’s hospitality manager.

Bharadwaj,sent a mail to Tharoor on March 19,two days before the bids were opened and Tharoor supported Kochi team sprang a surprise by making the second highest bid.

Meanwhile,Patel claimed that his secretary was only forwarding information requested by Tharoor.

“Shashi andI have been friends and he did ask me whether I could help him with some information in the capacity of a friend,since he was putting together a team from Kochi. I know what information has been passed,” he said.

“If I was a bidder,why would I help out a competitor with information,” he added.

Poorna Patel admitted that she had forwarded the mail to her father’s secretary,but said she was only following Raman’s instructions.

“ Sunder had given me certain instructions and I was merely following that,Other than that,I have no idea,” Poorna said.

Raman on his part,said he sent it to Poorna,as a key member of the IPL team,but did not know why she forwarded it to Patel’s office.