More than being heavily into betting on IPl-6 T20 cricket matches, what has complicated matters for the arrested Chennai Super Kings (CSK) team principal Gurunath Meiyappan is the evidence that he was passing information about his team’s strategy to actor Vindoo Singh Randhawa, a conduit between cricket-film personalities and bookies.
During the interrogation that the Mumbai Police subjected him soon after his arrival in Mumbai on Friday until the small hours of Saturday, Meiyappan has reportedly confessed to having placed heavy bets on the IPl T20 matches through Vindoo and also passed on his team strategy related information to the latter. (Vindoo had earlier told the police that Meiyappan had placed heavy bets and lost to the tune of Rs 1 crore during the current IPl season).
Based on the admissions made by Meiyappan, the investigators are trying to establish if he was also in touch with bookies other than Vindoo, who himself has dabbled as a bookie operating under the name of “Jack”, and if the arrested CSK team principal was passing the team strategy related information to any of other bookies. The remand application, filed by the Mumbai crime branch police before a city court, has thrown considerable light of the alleged involvement of Meiyappan in the IPl betting racket.
According to evidence mustered by the investigators, Meiyappan used four mobile phones (nos: 9003154827, 9840549999, 9094554660 and 7299915545) to call up Vindoo on the latter’s mobile no 9967949991 and place huge bets. Vindoo would in turn pass on the bets to two Jaipur bookie-brothers Sanjay Jaipur and Pawan Jaipur and fellow bookie Jupiter.
Incidentally, Vindoo had earlier admitted to having given shelter to, transported and facilitated the escape the two Jaipur bookies from Mumbai to Dubai, after the Delhi police made the first arrests in the IPl spot fixing scam last week.
Given that Vindoo was in constant touch with Meiyappan, the Mumbai police had tapped their mobile conversations for some time now - a fact that the investigators told the city court while seeking remand of the arrested CSK team principal. Among other things, the Mumbai police told the court that they had taken requisite permission to tape the mobile conversation between Vindoo and Meiyappan.
In another revelation, the investigators have told the court that some of the mobile phones used by Meiyappan for placing bets are not in his name, but have been obtained using forged documents. It is for this reason that the investigators have booked Meiyappan for forgery, besides charging him with offences like cheating conspiracy and offences under the Bombay Prevention of Gambling Act, 1887 and section 66 A (a) of the Information Technology Act 2000.
Next few days may see the Mumbai visiting Chennai, along with Meeiyappan, to confiscate four mobile phones used by him for placing bets on IPl T20 matches.
Informed sources in the city crime branch said that though the investigators had already held one round of joint questioning of Meiyappan and Vindoo in the small hours of Saturday, they would b confronting the two for a few more rounds of questioning in the coming days.
Considering that key bookie Ramesh Vyas whom they arrested last week and who provided useful leads to the betting syndicates in the metropolis and the ones in Pakistan and Dubai, the investigators may try to seek custody from the city court which had early week remanded him and other arrested bookies to judicial custody. They may confront Vyas with Vindoo and extract information, if any, about Meiyappan.
For, the investigations have revealed that Vyas has been in touch with bookies in the city, elsewhere in the country, Dubai and Pakistan. Meiyappan is alleged to have had indirect link with Vyas over the past few months.
Even the investigators are keen to know as to the kind of the links that Meiyappan might have had ICC’s elite panel umpire from Pakistan Asad Rauf, whom the international cricket body withdrew from next month’s Champion Trophy early this week.
Now that they have got the custody of Meiyappan till May 29, they will grill him on his alleged with Rauf, in the next few days.