While slamming Delhi Police for slapping stringent provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) on Rajasthan Royals cricketers S Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan, a city court on Monday granted bail to the players, including 17 others arrested in the IPl spot-fixing scandal.
After hearing the argument, Additional Session Judge, Vinay Kumar Khanna, said: “There is no reason to believe that the accused are guilty under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) at this stage.” The third RR player Ajit Chandila has not applied for bail hence he will remain in jail.
On May 28, the three cricketers were sent to judicial custody after the court refused to grant further police custody. Sreesanth and Chavan could not be released on bail as the court pronounced its order late on Monday evening. Both are likely to be released from prison on Tuesday after completing formalities.
The court, while granting bail to the 19 accused, said it is prima facie not satisfied with the allegation that offences punishable under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy)
420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust) of the IPC are made out against the accused at this stage.It also said it is not satisfied that “culpability and mens rea (criminal motive)” is made out against the accused.
The judge also said the accused were not “habitual offenders” and have clean antecedents and they are not likely to flee from justice. The court directed the accused to submit their passports before it and asked them not go out of India without its prior permission.During the argument the court repeatedly asked Delhi Police to show the nexus between the accused and the underworld's crime syndicate.
“The Court is not satisfied with the submission of Delhi Police for invoking MCOCA against the accused. Observing the matter going into the materials placed before the court, this court finds that there is no sufficient material on record to establish that there is a nexus of the accused with the organized crime syndicate. It also found that the accused are not habitual offenders. All accused who have moved bail application are granted bail,” the ASJ said.