Former IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi has exposed a web of coercion, political pressure, and underworld threats that surrounded the controversial Kochi IPL team bid process—a saga that ultimately led to his ousting from the league and forced him to flee India. Modi’s revelations, shared during a candid podcast with Raj Shamani, shine a light on how powerful political figures, including Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and his late wife Sunanda Pushkar, manipulated the system for their personal gain, while also shedding light on the dangerous forces behind the scenes of India’s most popular cricket tournament.
The controversy surrounding the Kochi IPL team has always been shrouded in mystery, but Modi’s account provides new details about what transpired during the bidding process. The IPL, which had just taken off in 2008, was rapidly becoming a cash cow, and the Kochi franchise’s bid raised several eyebrows. While the winning bid of $348 million from the Kochi consortium seemed legitimate on paper, it contained a highly suspicious provision that Modi refused to sign—granting 25 per cent ownership of the team to Sunanda Pushkar, despite her having no financial stake in the consortium.
Modi, who had been closely overseeing the bidding process, was shocked when he discovered that despite not contributing any money to the Kochi consortium, Sunanda Pushkar was granted 25 per cent of the team for free. Moreover, she was set to receive a lucrative 15 per cent cut of the team’s revenue. “I looked at the list of 12 shareholders, and everything seemed fine until I saw the name Sunanda Pushkar. She had zero investment in the consortium, but was handed 25 per cent ownership of the team, plus 15% of every dollar coming in. This didn’t add up,” Modi said. His suspicions were further fueled when he realised that such an arrangement was both unorthodox and highly questionable.
Refusing to sign the documents under these conditions, Modi’s position set off a chain of events that would soon escalate into high-level political interference. According to Modi, within hours of his refusal to sign the deal, he received a call from Shashi Tharoor, the then Congress MP and husband of Sunanda Pushkar. The conversation was anything but cordial. “Tharoor called me up and said, ‘Don’t you dare ask about Sunanda Pushkar. If you do, I’ll have you raided by the ED (Enforcement Directorate) tomorrow, and we’ll have you taken by Income Tax and thrown in jail,’” Modi recalled.
Despite the veiled threat from Tharoor, Modi stood his ground. But the pressure on him continued to mount. He was then contacted by the then-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Shashank Manohar. According to Modi, Manohar told him that he was under immense pressure to sign the documents and that the calls were coming directly from 10 Janpath, the residence of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, who at the time was considered the true center of political power in the country.
“I was told that Shashank Manohar had received calls from 10 Janpath, and that they were pressuring him to ensure I signed the deal,” Modi said. This startling claim underscores the deep political influence that was allegedly exerted on the IPL during its formative years. At a time when the country’s political landscape was dominated by the Gandhi family, Modi’s refusal to comply with the demands seemed to have put him on a collision course with the country’s political elite.
But this wasn’t the only danger Modi faced at the time. His refusal to participate in what he perceived as corrupt practices in cricket—such as match-fixing—would soon attract the attention of far more sinister forces. Lalit Modi’s controversial stance against match-fixing, particularly in the IPL, reportedly led to direct threats from notorious underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.
Modi claimed that he had received direct threats from Ibrahim’s underworld syndicate, which had sought to manipulate matches for financial gain. “I refused to participate in match-fixing, and that didn’t sit well with Dawood Ibrahim,” Modi said. In fact, he said that the pressure from the underworld escalated when he openly championed the fight against corruption in cricket. “The anti-corruption campaign in cricket was extremely important to me. The integrity of the game mattered more than anything,” Modi emphasized.
But things took a darker turn when Modi received death threats from Dawood Ibrahim’s network. “I was informed that Dawood Ibrahim wanted to fix matches, and I refused. He had his operatives working to silence me,” Modi said. The situation grew even more perilous when, according to Modi, he was placed on a hit list by Ibrahim’s aides. In a chilling moment, he recalled how he was escorted through Mumbai airport with police protection after being informed by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Himanshu Roy, that his life was in imminent danger.
“They told me, ‘We can no longer protect you. Your life is in danger. We can only guarantee your safety for the next 12 hours,’” Modi recounted. Following this, he was swiftly moved to a safe location, and Modi fled the country shortly thereafter in 2010, citing death threats from the underworld as the primary reason for his departure—not legal troubles, as had been widely speculated. “I wasn’t running from the law. I left because my life was in danger,” Modi stated.
Modi further disclosed that he had narrowly avoided an assassination attempt in Bangkok, where he was living at the time. According to him, a team of sharpshooters, sent by Ibrahim’s associate Chhota Shakeel, had arrived at his hotel, with orders to kill him. However, Modi managed to escape the hit, reportedly alerted by a well-placed tip-off.
While Modi has long faced legal battles in India—he was accused of financial irregularities during his tenure as IPL chief—he vehemently denies any wrongdoing. “I could return to India tomorrow morning, but legally, I am not a fugitive. There isn’t a single case against me in any court. If there is, let them present it,” he said during the podcast.
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