Sunanda Pushkar’s murder linked to cricket?
Sunanda Pushkar’s murder linked to cricket?
The Sunanda Pushkar murder saga is likely to open a can of worms. There decibel levels that the murder has something to do with cricket is increasing with passage of time.
Earlier today, Subramanian Swamy tweeted: “The crowd that organised Sunanda murder is also behind the campaign to unseat ICC/BCCI Chm Srinivasan. India is Dubai driven nowadays.”
Swamy later tweeted: “Another Sunanda mystery for PTs: Sunanda was checked into Rm 307. But body found in 345. Why?”
Swamy is seen as a rabble rouser and many of his meaningful comments/views are often not taken seriously. Despite his impressive academic credentials, he suffers from credibility issue.
But Swamy is not the only person who believes there is a cricketing link to Sundanda’s murder. Sabin Iqbal of Theleka has written a piece in which he says: “It was reported that she [Sunanda] had wanted to reveal something regarding the Indian Premier League (IPL), and had even planned a press meet. But she was found dead in her suite, while her husband was away attending an AICC meeting in another part of the city.”
While she was dating Shashi Tharoor, Sunanda reportedly got sweat equity to the tune of Rs 700 million in Rendezevous Sports World (RSW) — a consortium made up of multiple companies — which had 10% equity in the Kochi Tuskers, an IPL team. RSW won the bid of US $333 million in a global invitation to tender process called by the IPL for two new franchises from IPL season 2011. The company was founded in 2009, while Sunanda was made a Director of the company on February 25, 2010, just 18 days before the IPL bid. There were allegations that Shashi Tharoor had abused his ministerial powers to ask for a free stake in the company, and that Sunanda was a proxy for him. Tharoor finally had to resign as a minister.
In 2014, shortly before her death, Sunanda stated that she had taken upon herself “the crimes of this man [Shashi Tharoor] during IPL”. Sunanda’s marriage to Shashi Tharoor had entered choppy waters by this time.
Many still believe that the deaths of Bob Woolmer in mysterious circumstances in a West Indies hotel and that of Hansie Cronje were murder. Cricket yet again finds itself in trouble with Sunanda murder being linked to the once gentleman’s game.