Sunanda Pushkar and Shashi Tharoor controversy: Latest updates

Her involvement in IPL Kochi team and Shashi Tharoor made Sunanda Pushkar very famous overnight. Indian newspapers and news channels are now looking into the family background of Sunanda Pushkar.

To know more about her and her family, reporters of Daily News Analysis (DNA) visited Sunanda Puskar’s native village, Bomai in Sopore district in Kashmir. It is located some 60 km from Srinagar. Sunanda Pushkar was born into a Pandit family. Her father, Poshkar Nath Dass, retired as a lieutenant colonel in the army. The Dass family was quite well known in the village for their riches and generosity. They owned large amount of land in Bomai and in nearby villages. According Ghulam Hassan Darzi, a government employee, some 100 pandit families used live in Bomai village and there used to be a separate”Dass Moholla.” They had good relationship with the Muslim people. Twenty years ago, when the militants attacked the valley, Pushkar’s family went to Jammu leaving all their lands, orchards and their house which today lies in ruins. Pushkar was known as “Pinky.” She was considered as a rebel. DNA reports:

She did the unthinkable by breaking the age-old tradition of pandits when she took the first name of her father as her surname albeit with some modification.

Poshkar became Pushkar and Sunanda Dass became Sunanda Pushkar. Her father Poshkar Nath Dass retired as a lieutenant colonel in the army; her brothers are officers.

Sunanda has two other brothers. One of them is working in the Indian army and another works in the banking sector.

A local sawmill owner, Ghulam Hassan Lone told reporters that Poshkar Nath stayed away from home most of the time as he served in the army. His sons and daughter studied in the city. Ghulam Hassan said that Sunanda was a modern girl. Her first marriage was with a Kashmiri Pandit boy named Sanjay Raina. It took place in the 1980s. A grand celebration was observed for her marriage. The marriage ended in a divorce. Raina currently lives in Mumbai and a singer by profession. He has a website where he describes himself as the “Raja of remixes.” He currently runs an event management company. Sunanda then got married to a Kerala businessman named Sujit Menon. He died in a road accident in Delhi. After her marriage with Menon, Sunanda moved to Dubai. There she worked in several companies.

One interesting thing about Tharoor’s first wife, Tilottama Mukherji, she is the granddaughter of a Kailashnath Katu, a Kashmiri who was the chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and governor of Orissa and Bengal.

Shashi Tharoor, Sunanda Pushkar and IPL controversy

Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for External Affairs of India, is now in the headlines of Indian newspaper for his relationship with Sunanda Pushkar and involvement in IPL Kochi Team. It is believed that Sunanda Pushkar is going to be the third wife of Shashi Tharoor. Sunanda is the daughter of an army officer in Jammu. She currently runs a spa business in Dubai. She had been married twice before. Her first husband was a Kashmiri working in Delhi. Her second husband died in an accident.

Shashi Tharoor had been married twice. His first marriage was with Tilottama Mukherji, an academician based in Kolkata. His second wife, Christa Giles, is a Canadian civil servant. Sunanda Pushkar and Shashi Tharoor were seen together two months ago at Congress minister, Jitin Prasada’s wedding party. On that day, Sunanda was wearing a red sari and a low-neck blouse. If everything goes according to plan, then Sunanda Pushkar will be the next wife of Shashi Tharoor.

Sunanda got media’s attention when her name came up as owner of IPL Kochi team. Sunanda Pushkar is part of a consortium Rendezvous Sports Pvt. Ltd. which owns 25% of the Indian IPL Kochi team. Out of thi,s 18% belongs to Sunanda Pushkar.

Lalit Modi revealed the names of the owners of the new IPL Kochi Team in a Twitter message. He also wrote that he was told not to get into too much details about the owners of Rendezvous Sports World Pvt. Ltd. especially, Sunanda Pushkar. The value of Pushkar’s stake is worth $15.82 million (about Rs. 70 crore). This led to curiosity about Sunanda Pushkar.

Since, Shashi Tharoor played a big role in mentoring Rendezvous Sports Pvt. Ltd. many believe that Shashi Tharoor has some financial interest. If this proves to be true then Shashi Tharoor will be in a big trouble.

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Details about Sunanda Pushkar: The mysterious owner of IPL Kochi team

Sunanda Pushkar, the mysterious owner of the new IPL Kochi team, is believed to be the third would be wife of Shashi Tharoor. Shashi Tharoor had been married twice before. His first marriage was with Tilottama Mukherji, an academician based in Kolkata. Tharoor used to know her back in her school days in Kolkata. His second marriage was with Christa Giles, a Canadian civil servant. Christa Giles currently works with the United States on disarmament issues. Sunanda Pushkar has her own spa business in Dubai.

It was IPL Chairman, Lalit Modi, who broke out this confidential piece of information by giving out the names of the stake holders in the new IPL franchise. In a Tweeter message, Lalit Modi said,

“I was told not to get into who owns Rendezvous, specially Sunanda Pushkar. Why?”

The new IPL Kochi team has seven owners, they are-

Rendezvous Sports World (25% free)

Rendezvous Sports World (1% purchased)

Anchor (27%)

Parinee (26%)

Film Waves (12%)

Anand Shyam (8%)

Vivek Venugopal (1%).

The Rendezvous Sports World is a consortium which consists of eight members- Kisan, Shailender and Pushpa Gaikwad, Sunanda Pushkar, Puja Gulathi, Jayant Kotalwar, Vishnu Prasad, Sundip Agarwal. Out of the 25% free equity, Sunanda Pushkar holds 18%.

The signing of the franchise agreement took place on April 10, 2010. News reports say that, a union minister called up an IPL official and told not to look for details about Sunanda Pushkar. Later, it was revealed that Sunanda Pushkar is close with Shashi Tharoor and the two were seen together in New Delhi’s social circles for quite some times.

Interestingly, the idea of creating a “five member consortium” to have an IPL team for Kochi was spearheaded by Tharoor himself. Though he mentioned that he has no financial interest, it is now clear that Tharoor had other intentions. The sale price of Kochi IPL team was Rs.1,530 crores and 18% of that amount is a big amount and if it comes out that Tharoor is some how related in the matter will pose a big threat for his political career.

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