Lalit Modi offered me a job but I refused it, says Sushma Swaraj's husband

The controversy surrounding Lalit Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj took a dramatic turn after NDTV released documents showing that the former IPL chairman offered a job to Sushma’s husband, Swaraj Kaushal, months after India’s foreign minister helped the tainted tycoon obtain travel documents in the UK.

In a letter, (available with all leading TV channels) Lalit Modi asked Swaraj Kaushal to serve as his back up on the board of one of his companies – Indofil. News channels accessed an email sent in April this year where Lalit Modi had asked Sushma Swaraj’s husband to be an ‘alternate director’ at Indofil. Modi suggested Swaraj’s name because he was going out of the country.

Speaking to  NDTV, Swaraj Kaushal clarified that he had refused the offer. “I have been a lawyer for Lalit Modi for over 20 years. I was offered to be an Alternate Director on Indofil Board. I did not given my consent to be the director. The request was withdrawn.” Indofil confirmed that the offer was made to Kaushal on 15 April 2015, Times Now reported.

Sushma Swaraj had interceded with the UK govt and top-ranking Labour Party MP of Indian origin Keith Vaz in July 2014 to organize a travel document for Lalit Modi.

Indofil CMD and Lalit Modi’s father, K K Modi, also spoke to NDTV and said that this is a private matter and should not be made into a controversy. “There is no conflict of interest. Swaraj Kaushal is not on Indofil board,” senior Modi told NDTV.

Immediately after the news broke, Congress said that the letter reveals the close proximity the tainted cricket tycoon and Sushma Swaraj’s husband shared. Reports said that the new email exchange reopens the conflict of interest angle in this case. “When he turned down the offer, what is the problem? Swaraj Kaushal has not hidden his professional links to Lalit Modi,” BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao was quoted as saying by the NDTV.

Opposition was quick to react and cried themselves hoarse asking the Union foreign minister to step down. “I think it’s time for the foreign minister to sing the national anthem and step down,“Tom Vadakkan of the Congress was quoted by the Times Now.

Earlier, this Firstpost article had noted that Sushma Swaraj’s claim that she helped Lalit Modi on ‘humanitarian grounds’ is a bust considering how close her family is to the tainted IPL chairman. While Sushma’s daughter, Bansuri Swaraj – a law graduate from the Oxford University and a barrister at law from Inner Temple in UK – represented Modi for seven years, the Union Minister’s husband Swaraj Kaushal gave legal counsel to the disgraced sports administrator’s for 22 years.

Swaraj Kaushal, a senior advocate, found himself in the eye of the storm after reports surfaced that there was a bit of a quid-pro-quo situation between Kaushal and Modi. According to this report in The Huffington Post , Kaushal had taken Modi’s help to secure his nephew admission at Sussex University in the UK.