Plea seeking CBI probe into Tharoor's IPL link withdrawn

A lawyer, who had sought a direction from the Supreme Court for a CBI probe into Union Minister Shashi Tharoor's alleged proxy stake in the Kochi IPL franchisee, on Thursday withdrew his petition.

Advocate Ajay K Agrawal withdrew his petition after a bench headed by Justice S H Kapadia declined his plea for an early hearing in the matter.

The advocate, who had filed the petition on April 13, had also urged the apex court to constitute a special investigation team to probe the allegations.

He had contended that the Minister of State for External Affairs had used his official position to help get 19 per cent of the stakes pegged around Rs 70 crore free to Sunanda Pushkar whom Tharoor has reportedly decided to marry.

IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi had recently disclosed the names of the free equity holders, including Pushkar, in the Rendezvous Sports World (RSW) which shelled out approximately Rs 1533 crore to bag the Kochi franchisee.

Tharoor has denied having a stake in the franchise, saying that he merely played a facilitator's role.