The Delhi Police on Tuesday named global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim as the main conspirator in the spot-fixing scandal of the Indian Premier league (IPl)’s season 6.
Investigators have clinching evidence to suggest that Ramesh Vyas, a Mumbai-based bookie, was in touch with Dawood and handled his operations in India. The police have also revealed that the voice intercepted by the Special Cell was that of Dawood Ibrahim. The voice sample tests conducted on players and bookies and other accused has proved all the charges of betting and fixing during the last season of the IPl.
This is for the first time in more than a decade that Dawood has been named as an accused in any case. Rajasthan Royal’s players Sreesanth, Ankit Chavan and Ajit Chandila are among 39 people named in the over 500-page chargesheet for cheating and conspiracy under sections of the IPC and the MCOCA.
Police said the Dawood syndicate has been operating with a singular objective of de-stabilising India. “A person has confirmed the voice of Dawood and that is one of the strong evidence we have regarding his involvement. We can’t reveal the name due to security concerns. His voice has been intercepted twice,” said a senior police official.
Out of the 39 chargesheeted, 10 people including Dawood, Chhota Shakeel, Salman Master, Javed Chutani and Etishyam are at large.
The Police had earlier sought NBW against Dawood and Shakeel. The police also sought cancelation of bail granted to Sreesanth and 20 others.
The chargesheet says, “Ashwani Aggarwal, alias Tinku Mandi, revealed that he was a close associate of underworld conduit Javed Chutani, a native of Pakistan who works from Dubai with other members of Dawood Ibrahim”.
Investigations also revealed that Dawood and Shakeel were using a particular phone number to be in touch with bookies.
“Telephonic conversations, intercepted calls, mobile phones and electronic gadgets, voice samples of 12 people, call data records (CDR) to trace locations, forensic experts who analyzed text messages and record of travel details, Rs 25.5 lakhs and hotel stays were some of the evidences mentioned in the chargesheet,” said a senior police official.
A list of 168 witnesses including cricketer Rahul Dravid has been mentioned in the chargesheet. It does not include the names of Rajasthan Royals owners Raj Kundra and his wife Shilpa Shetty.
The bookies interacted with each other for Hawala transactions through a code. “One such code mentioned in the chargesheet was ‘Ek Ka Note 51k 390777’ which was sent to one Virender. There are more like this which have been mentioned in the charge sheet and the explanations of this would be given in the court,” said a senior police official of the Special Cell.