The unravelling of the alleged underhand deals behind IPL by government agencies might claim a collateral image in the form of a crackdown on Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan?s eight-year old film production company, Red Chillies Entertainment.
The registrar of companies (RoC), Mumbai has found that the company, which owns 55% stake in IPL franchise, Kolkata Knight Riders, has not been duly filing the annual returns with RoC as required under the Companies Act.
The RoC, Mumbai has also found Jaipur IPL Cricket, owners of Rajasthan Royals of flouting the requirement of filing annual returns. Both the firms have now been served showcause notices.
Sources told FE that the RoC has warned that if the directors of the companies do not respond within a fortnight with satisfactory explanation, criminal proceedings would be initiated against them.
Despite repeated attempts Shah Rukh Khan could not be contacted for comments. The revelations came to light when the RoC sought ownership and other such details from all the IPL franchise in the aftermath of the Lalit Modi-Shashi Tharoor spat over the sweat equity allotted to Tharoor?s friend Sunanda Pushkar in the Kochi IPL team.
The other promoters of Knight Riders Sports named by the RoC include Jay Mehta and Sanjiv Chawla, husband and brother of bollywood actor Juhi Chawla, respectively.
The Jaipur IPL Cricket has been charged for not filing annual returns for the year ended September 2009. In the report, RoC has named two directors of the company?Raghuram Natrajan Iyer and Ranjit Rabindranath Barthukar.
Following the resignation of minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor, the corporate affairs ministry started a due diligence process into the matter. Last week the RoC had written to all the 10 IPL teams, including the new IPL franchisees of Kochi and Pune, seeking details of their team ownership, sweat equity and last three years? balance sheets.
?We are awaiting responses from the other regional RoCs to send us their observations on the findings,? a ministry source said. He added that so far the responses by the IPL teams have been far from satisfactory.
RoC had sent letters to KKR, Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals, Kochi, Pune, Kings Eleven Punjab, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Deccan Chargers, Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Daredevils.