Arrested pacer S Sreesanth and 13 others, including two other cricketers of Rajasthan Royals franchise, were sent to police custody for five days by a city court for quizzing in connection with the IPl spot fixing scandal.
The Delhi Police told the court that it seemed more persons were involved and fresh arrests are expected. Investigation suggested that bookies had betted on some other players too, it said.
All accused — including Sreesanth’s IPl teammates Ajit Chandila and Ankit Chavan — were brought to Saket district court complex with their faces covered, along with 11 Mumbai and Delhi bookies.
Dressed in a black T-shirt and jeans, Sreesanth was brought to court in a separate car, though he too kept his face covered.
Two policemen accompanied him to produce him at the residence of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate lokesh Kumar Sharma, inside the Saket court complex.
The media was barred from entering the magistrate’s residence, which was under a thick security blanket.
During the hearing, Delhi Police Special Cell sought seven days custodial interrogation of the cricketers and others to unearth the entire conspiracy relating to spot fixing in three IPl matches involving Rajasthan Royals.
Public prosecutor Rajiv Mohan sought police custody of all the accused for confronting them with each other’s statements and electronic evidence, including their laptops, collected during the discreet probe.
The custodial interrogation was required to ascertain the magnitude of conspiracy, if any, according to Mohan who added that the source of money allegedly received by cricketers also needed to be found.
During arguments, the prosecutor claimed that several other matches in IPl were also fixed and the accused were required to be interrogated regarding this also. “Huge amounts are involved in the case,” Mohan said, pointing to a “larger conspiracy.”
The counsel appearing for some of the accused said they were innocent and had been falsely implicated. The defence counsel alleged foul play.