The spectre of match fixing has returned to haunt Indian cricket. Three players of Rajasthan Royals — temperamental fast bowler Shantakumaran Sreesanth, Mumbai’s Ankit Chavan, and Ajit Chandila from Faridabad — were arrested in Mumbai on Thursday for indulging in spot-fixing. The Delhi Police has collected clinching evidence against them.
Delhi Police Special Cell is investigating the role of other bookies who were in touch with notorious members of the Mumbai Underworld, now residing in Pakistan and UAE. Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar said they had received specific information in April that members of Mumbai Underworld were involved in spot-fixing in the current session of IPl.
Kumar gave his nod for the arrest of the three cricketers and 11 bookies on the charges of forgery and criminal conspiracy under Sections 420/120-B/34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Sreesanth, Ankit Chavan, Ajit Chandila were arrested after the Mumbai Police nabbed Ramesh Vyas, a South Mumbai-based property dealer, with 92 cellphones and 30 lines directly linked with Pakistani contacts. Vyas was arrested with two more bookies, Pandurang Kadam and Ashok Vyas. They operated by using Pakistani numbers and were in direct touch with four bookies of Delhi. They operated from Jaipur, Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
The Delhi Police had intercepted the calls of Delhi-based bookies lokesh, Tinku, Jupiter and Bharat, alias Billu. It arrested another bookie, Chand Bhai, who spilled the names of the players involved in the spot-fixing.
The Mumbai Police is carrying out a parallel investigation. It arrested Praveen Dehra and Neeraj Shah, an employee of Airtel, who provided SIM cards to the bookies without any documents and verification.
The Delhi Police had put under electronic surveillance certain bookies working for betting cartel based in a foreign country. The players were won over by the bookies, who had given the cricketers typical signs to indicate in advance that they were getting ready to perform the task. The Delhi Police claims to have evidence that three matches were fixed by the accused players.
However, the Delhi Police chief was categorical in denying that no other players were involved.
The lead was further developed and a gang of bookies, conduits and players were identified. Accordingly, a case was registered at Special Cell police station at lodhi Road, he said.
The fixers had adopted a typical modus operandi and had tutored the players to give specific signals to them in advance so that they can place bets for specific deliveries. The arrested players have been found to have indulged in spot-fixing in three matches played by Rajasthan Royals, said the Delhi Police chief.
The first match, where spot-fixing was carried out was played in Pune on May 5 between Rajasthan Royals and Pune Warriors India. Ajit Chandila conceded 14 runs in the second over to Robin Uthappa. There was a deal with bookie Amit, who had advanced a payment of Rs 20 lakhs to Chandila to give away 14 runs in the second over of his spell. Chandila forget to signal that he was going to bowl that particular over. He had to return the money to the bookie as he was unable to take bookings for the slot.
The second instance of spot fixing was witnessed in Mohali against Kings Eleven Punjab on May 9. Sreesanth was to sport a towel on the right side of his waist to signal to bookie Jiju Janardhan. As decided, Sreesanth bowled the first over without the towel but took it in the next over and spent considerable amount of time in preparing to bowl. By indulging in such histrionics, he gave ample time and signals to the bookie to place and take bets. He gave away 13 runs in that over and made Rs 60 lakhs for the spot fixing, added the Commissioner of Police.
The third and last instance was in Wednesday's match played at Wankhede stadium against Mumbai Indians. Ajit Chandila managed to coax Ankit Chavan to play to the tunes of a bookie known as Chand. Chavan was promised an amount of Rs 60 lakhs for conceding 14 runs in his second over. Chavan bowled a tight first over giving away just two runs. He bowled three looses deliveries in his second over and Jim Maxwell of Mumbai Indians hit him for a Six, two and a six. Having fulfilled the promise made to bookie Chand, Chavan then bowled three tight deliveries and gave just one run in the remaining over, Kumar said.
"Special Cell team camping in Mumbai was given the go-ahead to arrest the players. Sreesanth was picked up from his friend's house at Carter Road, Chandila from Trident hotel, while Chavan was arrested from Inter Continental hotel. Their arrests were followed by the arrests of bookies Chandresh Patel of Andheri East in Mumabi, Amit Kumar, Manan from Ahmedabad and Jiju Janardhan, a friend of Sreesanth and his teammate from Ernakulam cricket club in Kerala.
This is not the first time that spot fixing took place in IPl matches. Five players were suspended on spot fixing charges earlier. The players were, TP Sudhindra (Deccan Chargers), Mohnish Mishra (Pune Warriors), Amit Yadav, Shalabh Srivastava (Kings XI Punjab) and Abhinav Bali.