Chennai:
The Mumbai Police, which is probing the IPL spot-fixing scandal, has summoned Chennai-based hotelier Vikram Aggarwal tomorrow. Mr Aggarwal alias Victor was asked to surrender before the Tamil Nadu Police today but he missed the deadline.
Mr Aggarwal, the Tamil Nadu Police say, has been active in betting circles and was the person who introduced small-time actor Vindoo Dara Singh to Gurunath Meiyappan. Both the actor and Mr Meiyappan are in police custody and are being interrogated over their role in betting on Indian Premier League or IPL matches.
Meanwhile, the Madras High Court today dismissed Mr Aggarwal's plea for anticipatory bail. Mr Aggarwal owns a franchise of Hotel Radisson Blu and other properties in Chennai.
A few days ago, the police said that investigations are on to find out why Mr Aggarwal's wife telephoned a cricket bookie, now under arrest, over a 100 times.
The police said that the hotelier, known as Victor in betting circles, used the phone connection in his wife's name to get in touch with the bookies.
Sources in the hotel industry say they do not know much about Mr Aggarwal. "Originally he was in the construction business and then he became a hotelier. He has two hotel properties - the 129-room Fortune Select Palms and the 162-room Radisson Blu Hotel City Centre. He was a new hotelier from nowhere," a hotel industry official said.