Tharoor received death threats: Aide

NEW DELHI: The controversy surrounding Shashi Tharoor took a sinister turn on Wednesday with his aide claiming that the minister has received death threats asking him to drop out of the Kochi IPL team.

Jacob Joseph, Officer on Special Duty with the Minister for State for External Affairs, alleged in a message to television channels that Tharoor has received such threats and Ministry of Home Affairs and police have been alerted about them.

However, both MHA and police have said they have not received any such information.

Tharoor has been in the thick of a controversy after IPL commissioner Lalit Modi disclosed that the minister had telephoned him not to reveal details about owners of the IPL Kochi franchise which included Sunanda Pushkar, a close friend of the minister.

Pushkar has been given a free equity of around 19 percent which is valued at Rs 70 crore in Rendezvous Sports World, which heads the consortium that owns the IPL Kochi team.