Tharoor gets death threat

14/04/2010

New twist: Tharoor gets death threat ....

Source : MSN News

New Delhi: The Kochi IPL saga took a new twist in Wednesday amidst reports that Union Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor got a death threat SMS from Dubai-based Dawood gang.

Tharoor's Officer on Special Duty claimed that an SMS was sent from one Shakeel who claimed to be a Dawood man asking Tharoor to stay off the IPL issue or face threat. Tharoor's office promptly alerted the Home Ministry.

Incidentally, Sunanda Pushkar, the lady in Tharoor's life, is a property dealer in Dubai.

Tharoor's penchant for landing in trouble is now taken almost for granted. If he escaped losing his job by the skin of his teeth for his cattle class tweet and for his comments on Saudi Arabia, this time he may be in deep trouble over the Kochi IPL row.

Sources here said UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi had a meeting with A K Antony and Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday. Sources indicated that an action would be taken only after a full report is obtained.

Congress sources say there are many leaders within the party who having been gunning Tharoor. The latest controversy has come in as big ammunition as there is every chance of the personal life of the Minister coming out into public domain.

Meanwhile, the CPM has asked Tharoor to step down till his name is cleared. The CPM sees this crisis as an opportunity to lift their sagging image in Kerala where the party is in deep trouble. Tharoor was elected to the Lok Sabha from Thiruvananthapuram.

Though the minister's links with Dubai-based beautician Sunanda Pushkar may be a private affair, questions are being raised on how a minister could be involved in transferring a substantial stake (worth Rs 70 crore by some estimates) in the Kochi IPL franchise to her free of cost.

Top Congress leaders are aware of the fact that politics, money, personal life and a public spat could be explosive especially if it gets into the hands of the Opposition.

To add to the mess, Tharoor's aide Jacob Joseph has called IPL commissioner Lalit Modi a convicted drug peddler. In an interview to CNN-IBN, Jacob said Modi was once involved in smuggling cocaine.


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