Trouble further mounted against the three IPl players and 11 bookies arrested in the spot-fixing scandal, with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) registering a money-laundering case against them on Tuesday.
With the registration of a case under stringent provisions of the Prevention of Money laundering Act, the agency will now seek documents related to banking and debit card transactions, besides income tax returns of the accused. They will be questioned by the ED
after scrutiny of documents, including their bank accounts and assets acquired during the last few years.
The case was registered following prima facie involvement of bookies and players in using the hawala route within the country to channel huge amounts of money involved in fixing IPl matches, according to agency sources.
Under PMlA, the agency can provisionally attach assets of the accused after filing of a charge sheet by treating such properties as proceeds of crime. Permanent attachment of assets will be effected once those involved are convicted for criminality in the spot-fixing case registered by Delhi Police.
With foreign underworld links also emerging, the agency may also register a separate case under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, if evidence of payments through the international hawala network is unearthed, sources added.
Eighteen persons, including three IPl players — S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankit Chavan — 11 bookies and their assistants have been arrested since Thursday.