As a Delhi Court on Tuesday packed off disgraced cricketer S Sreesanth and Ajit Chandila to high-security Tihar jail, the heat turned on BCCI chief N Srinivasan over the alleged involvement of his son-in-law in the IPl betting scandal. However, with the Delhi Police officially linking underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim to the betting scandal, the probe is likely to focus on the national security aspect as well.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at Saket Courts lokesh Kumar sent Sreesanth and Chandila to 14 days judicial custody by rejecting the police request for two more days of custodial remand for further interrogation. “The cricketer will be treated the same way as any other prisoner in the jail. The rules will be same for all the prisoners. There is no special treatment allotted to them,” said Sunil Gupta, PRO, Tihar Jail.
However, the jail administration has taken care to ensure that the cricketers do not share their cells with hardened criminals. The prison authorities have asked the cricketers to provide the list of 10 people whom they would like to meet during their stay at Tihar. Two meetings per week will be allowed to them. The family members are allowed to bring home food and clothes for the players, but this is allowed only twice a week. Seven calls per week are allowed for the players.
While turning down the plea of Special Cell of Delhi Police for the custody of Sreesanth, the court said he cannot be held liable for what has happened at his back. “Admittedly, Sreesanth cannot be held liable for instances at his back,” the court said on the police argument that immediately after his arrest, his hotel room was cleaned up and some articles were removed.
The court also sent Chandila and two bookies Ashwani Aggarwal and Chandresh Patel to judicial custody after the police said they were no more required for custodial interrogation. During the course of arguments, Senior Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan informed the court that interception of various calls suggested that several big names may be involved in the episode as calls were made to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. The police said there are some missing links and they are working on it.
While seeking custody of Sreesanth, the prosecutor told the court that Abhishek Shukla has joined investigation and he allegedly had cleaned the cricketer’s hotel room immediately after his arrest.
He also said that Sreesanth has to be confronted with Shukla, who might have removed the electronic gadgets and data kept in the cricketer’s room and at pacer’s instance Rs 5 lakh have to be recovered as his friend Jiju Janardhan had taken Rs 10 lakh on his behalf. The police told the court that the bills of the parties thrown by Sreesanth were paid by Abhishek Shukla as his (Shukla’s) PAN card number was mentioned on the bills.
Meanwhile, senior BCCI functionary Jyotiraditya Scindia called for N Srinivasan’s resignation, saying he should step down to avoid a conflict of interest in the investigation. Scindia, the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association president and Chairman of BCCI’s Finance Committee, said that propriety demands that Srinivasan steps down till the case of his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan is finally decided.
Scindia, also a member of the Disciplinary Committee probing into the alleged financial irregularities by former IPl Chairman lalit Modi, felt that the Board should take responsibility of the whole mess cricket is in today in the wake of spot-fixing scandal and take corrective steps.
Scindia supported the view expressed by former BCCI president Shashank Manohar that the whole IPl from the beginning should be probed by taking help from investigating agencies.
Earlier, Union Minister Farooq Abdullah said it made no sense in demanding the BCCI president’s resignation as it has not been proved that he is involved in any wrongdoing. "Why should he resignIJ" said Abdulla, president of the Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association.
In a related development, the Mumbai Police, investigating the IPl betting case, is seeking to call back Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf saying it had enough reasons to believe that he had links with bookies, sources said on Tuesday.
Rauf was recently withdrawn as umpire from the ICC Champions Trophy after it emerged that the Mumbai Police was probing his role in the betting case. Mumbai police had alleged that Rauf left India after being tipped off by arrested actor Vindoo Dara Singh.
Meanwhile, the Chennai hotelier, Vikram Aggarwal, being probed for links to betting is still untraceable. The Chennai Police has summoned Aggarwal for questioning on May 30.
Mumbai crime branch on Tuesday told a court that a SIM card given to Asad Rauf by a wanted bookie was destroyed at the instance of Vindoo Randhawa before the actor’s arrest in the IPl betting scam. The court extended his police remand till May 31.
Seeking further custody of Vindoo, who has emerged as a key figure in the IPl betting racket, prosecutor Kiran Bendbar said the SIM card was given by absconding bookmaker Sanjay Jaipur to controversial Pakistani umpire Rauf whom the actor asked to destroy it before being arrested.