No reason to disbelieve Tharoor, says Rajiv Shukla

BCCI's media and finance committee chairman and Congress MP Rajiv Shukla today defended junior foreign minister Shashi Tharoor on the Indian Premier League's Kochi ownership row, saying that there was "no reason to disbelieve him".

Tharoor is in the middle of a political storm after IPL commissioner Lalit Modi claimed that the minister wanted him to suppress details of Kochi's shareholding pattern especially the stakes of his friend Sunanda Pushkar.

Sunanda has been given a sizeable stake in the franchise which would make its IPL debut next year and Modi has alleged Tharoor had an agenda in having her in the consortium that won the bid.

Tharoor has denied the allegations and Shukla said the minister's explanations should be taken on face value. "There is no reason to disbelieve Tharoor," Shukla, Rajya Sabha MP, said.

Asked about the the late night Income Tax raids on BCCI, IPL and Modi's offices in Mumbai, Shukla said it was a routine check.

"Wherever there are financial transactions, the income tax department is there to check. The IT department can come and check. They came to investigate and the BCCI and the IPL are cooperating with them. They are free to enquire," he told a TV channel.