Indian Premier league (IPl) founder lalit Modi, against whom a non-bailable warrant has been issued in a case of money laundering, gave at least $30,000 to a charity set up to protect elephants in India headed by Britain’s Prince Charles, a media report said on Sunday.Modi, who denies the allegations of money laundering, has helped fund the Elephant Family charity as one of its patrons, The Sunday Times reported.
Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, were last year made joint presidents of the charity set up by Mark Shand, Camilla’s late brother.
The group is the largest British funder of the endangered Asian elephant and has many high-profile supporters working on creating safe corridors for elephants in North-East India.
Modi gave almost $30,000 to the organisation in October 2011, according to leaked documents seen by the newspaper.A later payment of 5,000 pounds was made to Shand “for the purchase of artwork” in February 2013. Shand died in April last year after a fall outside a bar in New York.Modi told the newspaper via his lawyer that “the charges made against him in India are politically motivated and without any foundation.”
In November, the charity will have a group of high-profile celebrities take part in an auto-rickshaw race across India. The ‘Travels to My Elephant’ campaign will see a fleet of 30 rickshaws race 500 kilometres as part of a planned “epic Indian adventure” across Madhya Pradesh to the elephant Tara’s home at Kipling Camp.
The event is inspired by Shand’s own rescue of Tara, which is recorded in his best-selling book ‘Travels on my Elephant.’