The Supreme Court on Friday lifted the veil on ex-BCCI chief N Srinivasan and three others, including IPl franchisee owner, besides three cricketers — one of them an overseas player — who were probed in the IPl spot-fixing scam by the Justice Mukul Mudgal panel, which submitted its report to the apex court. The court, however, restrained the media from disclosing the names of the cricketers.
The report found “misdemeanours by certain persons” forcing the BCCI to postpone its November 20 annual general body meeting by three weeks delaying Srinivasan return at the helm of the world’s richest cricketing body. Besides Srinivasan, his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan, IPl CEO Sundar Raman and IPl franchisee Rajasthan Royals owner Raj Kundra were named and described them as the “actors in the drama” relating to the scam.
The court ordered the Registry to segregate and supply relevant portions from the report to the four private persons to enable them file their response before November 24.
Although the individual role of these persons was not revealed, the bench had no hesitation in stating the “misdemeanours” of Srinivasan as the BCCI head at a time when his son-in-law was found to be indulging in betting.
Not choosing to make public the name of cricket players probed by the Mudgal panel, the bench of Justices TS Thakur and FM Ibrahim Kalifulla said, “That part of report that deals with players will be held back.”
Of the three players whose names were read out by the court, two are Indians and one a Briton.
The Mudgal panel had probed into the allegations of conflict of interest against Srinivasan and 12 others based on their first interim report prepared on the basis of interviews conducted with IPl franchisees, cricket players, and other experts associated with the game.
With “misdemeanours” found against Srinivasan, the court advised BCCI to hold over its November 20 meeting. It said, “Unless we address the questions posed in the report, we cannot say anything. It’s better till we decide this question you postpone the elections.” The meeting has been postponed twice so far on account of pendency of this matter. Senior advocate CA Sundaram, appearing for the Board, informed the Court that the meeting will be deferred by another three weeks.
For Srinivasan, senior advocate Kapil Sibal argued that notice also be sent to Sundar Raman, Meiyappan and Kundra as they were not party in the proceedings filed by Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB). The bench allowed senior counsel Harish Salve appearing for CAB to file a fresh application to join them in the case by Monday.