After being released from jail, Rajasthan Royals cricketer S Sreesanth spoke to the media at his lawyers’ office in Defence Colony late on Tuesday, where he expressed his confidence in the judiciary.
“I have full faith in the judiciary and I hope I will be proved innocent in the spot-fixing case. I have always played the game in the right spirit. The last 27 days have been the most testing time of my life and have taught me a lot of things. I seek support from all of you and I am really thankful to god,” he said.
Sreesanth will be staying at a friend’s residence in the Capital and will board Wednesday morning’s flight to Cochin.
Sreesanth, another arrested player of the Rajasthan Royals and bookies involved in the IPl scandal were released from jail earlier. They had all been granted bail on Monday. “The players were released around 8:10 pm after completing all formalities at the jail. We received order of their release on Tuesday afternoon. They were visibly emotion as they said ‘goodbye’ to jail officials,” said Tihar Jail PRO Sunil Gupta.
Sreesanth’s brother Deepu and his manager reached prison around 7 pm. The former has been a regular visitor. With Ankeet Chavan also to be released, his father, brother and aunt were eagerly waiting for him. The family first visited the Kali Mata temple in Rohini to offer prayers. Chavan is expected to fly to Mumbai at 10:50 pm.
“His father and other family members are really happy. Ankeet has full faith in the judiciary and is sure he will be proved innocent. He has undergone a lot of stress in the past days,” said Kishore Gaikwad, Chavan’s lawyer. However, Ajit Chandila is still languishing in jail as he has not applied for bail.
At Defence Colony, locals were all agog, waiting for Sreesanth’s arrival. Teenagers especially were seen discussing him. At 9 pm, the cricketer arrived in a Scorpio car, along with his lawyers and close friends. Both players who were released had to surrender their passports. They were originally remanded in judicial custody until June 18 after the Delhi Police invoked the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against them. The court granted bail on paucity of evidence.
Sreesanth, Chavan and Chandila were arrested on May 16, along with 11 bookies, and were charged under the Indian Penal Code Sections 420 and 120B, which deal with fraud, cheating and criminal conspiracy.