It may just be a matter of time for the real face of players involved in the IPl betting racket to get exposed.
After the Justice Mudgal panel submitted its report to the Supreme Court detailing the role of 13 persons, including players, in the IPl controversy, for the first time the Court was requested to make the entire report public in the interest of saving reputation of other players being speculated in media.
Senior advocate Harish Salve, who appeared for the petitioner Cricket Association of Bihar, informed the bench headed by Justice TS Thakur that debates in media were serving a platform for anybody to speculate and drop names of senior players causing tremendous damage to their reputation. As a way out, Salve asked the Court to consider making the entire report public.
The bench said, “We had initially asked you whether to make the report public. That time you had suggested keeping the players out.” However, the bench, also comprising Justice FM Ibrahim Kalifulla decided to take up the matter on Thursday.
Salve admitted it was a mistake to initially suggest piecemeal disclosure of report. He explained, “The purpose of protecting players is getting defeated. It is better that sunlight is allowed. Today all players are seen to be corrupt. Television programmes are speculating who the player (named in the report) is.”
BCCI counsel CA Sundaram argued against release of the report. “I don’t see any purpose in making the report public. This will give rise to more interpretation,” Sundaram said. His stand was supported by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who represented N Srinivasan, the BCCI President in exile. Sibal argued that the Court was concerned only with a narrow issue concerning the way forward.
The Court made it clear that a decision on disclosing the names of players may be dealt at a different stage. “We don’t know what orders we may pass depending on which individual we are dealing with.” The counsels for Raj Kundra and other persons named in the report also demanded a copy of entire report as select portions of the report made for a “cryptic” reading without specifying the role attributed to each accused.
Salve continued arguments to corner Srinivasan over alleged cover-up of his son-in-law’s betting activities in IPl by producing documents in support of his charges. He produced a letter written by BCCI to the Board where Meiyappan was shown as one of the owners of IPl team Chennai Super Kings. Another document showed that he was Director in India Cements, Srinivasan’s company which owns CSK, although India Cements lawyer informed the Court that Meiyappan had nothing to do with the firm.