Shashi Tharoor’s friend Sunanda Pushkar was given free equity by IPL Kochi and the junior foreign minister advised against prying into the consortium’s ownership, Lalit Modi has disclosed on Twitter.

The claim by the IPL commissioner has sucked the junior foreign minister into the biggest controversy in his short but tumultuous political career.

Modi’s revelation, which has prompted the Kochi team consortium led by Rendezvous to threaten to sue the IPL commissioner, raises the question why an acquaintance of a minister was given free equity and brings under strain Tharoor’s assertion so far that his role in the consortium was limited to that of a “mentor”.

Wielding the same weapon that pitchforked Tharoor to the top of the popularity charts, Modi used Twitter with devastating effect on Sunday.

A tweet by one of Modi’s followers Roshan Dev @LalitKModi asked: “Does sashi tharoor owns (sic!) something??”

In an uncharacteristic display of candour, Modi tweeted back: “a big? I was told by him not to get into who owns rendezvous. Specially Sunanda Pushkar. Why? The same has been minuted in my records.

“25% of kochi team is given free to Rendezvous sports for life. The same equity is non dilutable in perpetuity. What does that mean? Why? Wait “Who are the shareholders of rendezvous. And why have they been given this 100's of million dollar bonanza?