The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and its president N Srinivasan braced for another round of inquiry into the murky affairs of IPl betting and match fixing allegations as the Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved orders on conducting fresh inquiry into the role of Srinivasan and 12 other Indian team members suspected of having overtly or covertly engaging in betting and match fixing.
Inquiry into the IPl betting case ordered earlier by the Court had led to the 13 names being disclosed in a sealed cover by a panel comprising former Punjab and Haryana HC Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal, senior advocates lN Rao and Nilay Dutta.
The panel, which was asked whether it was willing to pursue the matter further against the 13 persons, on Tuesday gave its willingness to the Court.
Senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, who appeared for the panel, told the Court that Justice Mudgal would required assistance of former CBI Special Director Ml Sharma along with assistance of police officers in Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai who are investigating on IPl betting cases. It also recommended an eminent cricketer to be brought on board.
The bench of Justices AK Patnaik and FM Ibrahim Kalifulla reserved orders although it faced resistance from BCCI and Srinivasan’s counsel.
Appearing for BCCI, senior advocate CA Sundaram demanded that the investigation be handed over to BCCI disciplinary body on the assurance that Srinivasan will keep himself out of any probe being ordered by Court.
Srinivasan’s senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi submitted to Court that his client should be brought back into the Board as the charges against him were not so serious.
To this, Sundaram added that the only allegation against Srinivasan was that he did not act on the 12 allegations against the reputed players when it was brought to his notice. “It is not such a serious charge to keep the man out of the functioning of the cricket board,” Sundaram said.
The bench which overlooked BCCI’s objection to Mudgal panel said, “It is not that simple. A panel comprising a retired Judge and two eminent lawyers is saying please have a look at these charges. It cannot be as simple as you think.”
However, the counsel for Cricket Association for Bihar accepted the proposal to hand over probe to Mudgal Committee. BCCI had earlier decided to probe the charges leveled by the Mudgal panel by a committee headed by former HC judge JN Patel, comprising of former CBI Director RK Raghavan and Indian skipper Ravi Shastri.
For the time being, the Court did not restrain Srinivasan from attending International Cricket Council meetings, while maintaining that he must keep out from the daily affairs of BCCI, which is being jointly handled by cricketer Sunil Gavaskar (for IPl) and senior Vice-President Shivlal Yadav to handle routine affairs of the Board.