Disgraced cricketer Ajit Chandila, arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police on the charges of ‘spot fixing’, was allegedly paid at least Rs 49 lakh by the bookies for dancing to their tunes during the ongoing Indian Premier league (IPl) matches.
Chandila had accepted bribe from the bookies for bowling a manipulated over in a match against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Chandila had forgotten to indicate to the bookies that he was going to bowl the fixed over and had to forfeit Rs 20 lakh that he had taken for bowling that particular over.
The investigators also voiced suspicion about an arrested bookie Sunil Bhatia fixing matches of the Bangladesh Premier league earlier after interrogating him. The bookie had also claimed that he fixed some matches of the rebel Indian Cricket league, police sources claimed. The three arrested players Sreesanth, Chandila and Ankit Chavan over a period of time spoke to some of the bookies, they claimed.
Ajit Chandila had earlier met Deepak Kumar (bookie) in Chandigarh and made a deal to fix another match of the Indian Premier league (IPl) which was to be played on May 17 in Hyderabad between Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad. Chandila had settled the deal for Rs 15 lakh. However before Chandila could act, the police arrested him.
Deepak Kumar (35) a resident of Patiala who deals in property dealing business had met Ajit Chandila in Chandigarh on April 4 to convince him for spot fixing. After this meeting he had agreed to spot fix the match to be played on May 17 between Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad. Ajit Chandila fixed the deal for Rs 15 lakh but unfortunately was arrested by the Delhi Police. Kumar kept pestering Chandila to indulge in spot fixing.
Babu Rao Yadav a former Ranji Trophy player of the Indian railways had met Sunil Bhatia in 2007/2008; the same year in which he played the Indian Cricket league (ICl).
“After the ICl was banned and abandoned. Babu Rao started playing for a club in Kolkata. Sunil Bhatia approached Babu Rao and informed him that he had prominent contacts in the Bangladesh Premier league (BPl) and can get him a chance to play in the BPl,” said a senior police official. They both later went to Bangladesh in 2009.
Sunil Bhatia was spotted by the anti-corruption team of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and they both had to leave in a huff and return back to India.
“Sunil Bhatia also claimed that the ICl was fixed. He also built a ‘Sai Mandir’ in Nagpur. The donations given in the temple were also used by him to indulge in false practices. He did this to keep a positive image” said a senior official.
Bhatia and Chandila had met several times and shared a good friendship from quite some time. Sunil Bhatia had asked Babu Rao Yadav to pursue Ajit Chandila in spot fixing. Bhatia had also asked Kiran Dole and Manish Gudhwa to pursue Ajit Chandila.
Ajit Chandila was first contacted by Sunil Bhatia for spot fixing. The first set of calls intercepted by the police was between Bhatia, Tinku and Chandila in the second week of April.
“Sunil Bhatia is considered to be a potential fixer as he had contacts, Tinku Mandi alias Ashwini Aggarwal is considered to be the biggest bookie and Chandresh Patel is a unique combination of being a fixer and a bookie,” revealed a source.