Tharoor sweetheart quit Dubai job week before Kochi team sale

Power play

Enquiries by Deccan Herald with Pushkar’s former employer, Dubai-based Tecom Investments, a member of Dubai Holding, revealed that she resigned her job on March 13 this year, exactly a week before the Chennai auction. Pushkar worked as a “specialist” in leasing and property investment.

Abdullah, a Tecom Investment spokesman, confirmed to Deccan Herald that “she worked for us and quit on March 13”. Pushkar, who owns a spa in Dubai, worked at Tecom Investments since June 27, 2005.

Sources revealed Sunanda and Tharoor were scheduled to tie the knot on June 26, which is also her birthday. It is understood she had sent out text messages to some of her closest friends, disclosing the date of her marriage to the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha member. In a statement to ‘India Abroad News Service’, Pushkar said she “is not a proxy” for Tharoor, though there have been speculations to the contrary. Pushkar continued in her statement that “My own business interests and assets are substantial, and efforts to besmirch Tharoor by presenting me as a proxy for him are personally insulting for me as a woman and as a friend.”

She said she was contacted by Rendezvous Sports World, one of the consortium members of the Kochi IPL franchise, to take advantage of “my extensive international experience as a business executive, marketing manager and entrepreneur”.

“Because this is a start-up effort, I was told that in lieu of a salary they would grant me minor equity in Rendezvous in return for my efforts, a common practice across the world for... projects of this nature,” Pushkar said.

Other sources Deccan Herald spoke to in Dubai said Pushkar, who lived in an apartment on Sheikh Zayed Road, was a “middle level” employee holding the position of sales manager in Tecom. Before joining Tecom, Pushkar ran a spa, but she disappeared from the Emirate city once she quit her job in the company.

The Group CEO of Tecom Investments is Abdullatif Al Mulla. Tecom was the promoter of the SmartCity Kochi project, the agreement for which was signed with the Kerala government on May 13, 2007.

The Rs 1,500-crore project, however, ran into rough weather and was stalled following differences between the promoter and the Kerala government over the issue of freehold rights over the 246-acre land on which the proposed IT facility was to come up in Vazhakkala.