Mumbai:
Himanshu Roy, Joint Commissioner of Mumbai Police, held a press conference in Mumbai and said they had found more evidence against cricketer Sreesanth and another bookie who were arrested by the Delhi police. The cricketer had allegedly checked into a hotel independently and certain things that appear to be his were found in that room.
On Thursday, three Rajasthan Royals' players, Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila were arrested in Mumbai on suspicions of spot-fixing in the current IPL season. The three along with 11 others are now in Delhi being interrogated by the special cell.
Highlights of the Mumbai Police press conference: - We arrested a bookie named Ramesh Vyas on May 14. 92 mobiles phones, 18 sim cards, 1 laptop and cash was seized.
- 32 mobile phones were being used by Ramesh Vyas to facilitate the betting.
- Five bookies have been arrested in the last four days.
- Have arrested yet another bookie today. Total six arrests
- Questioning of Ramesh Vyas revealed that he was in touch with bookies whose names appeared in the current spot-fixing being investigated.
- The same bookies figure in Vyas' account books as well. There were transactions between them.
- Sreesanth had independently booked himself in a hotel in Mumbai. This was not the team hotel. The search of the hotel room shows that it was lived in as well.
- Have recovered a laptop, an iPad, cash, some diaries. Entries in the diary appear to be by Sreesanth , some in English, some in what appears to be Malayalam.
- We have reason to believe Sreesanth and Jiju (bookie arrested) checked into this hotel room late on May 13.
- Recovered iPad, mobile phone, personal belongings from Jiju Janardhan's room.
- We are also in the process of obtaining the footage of CCTV cameras in the hotel. We're trying to retrace their movements on 14, 15 May before his arrest by the police.
- Have obtained permission from court to take a mirror image of the seized laptops and other gadgets to aid our probe.
- We are going deep into the investigation and Sreesanth might be booked in our case also here
- Ramesh Vyas has been remanded to Mumbai Police's custody till May 20.
- We are analysing details, and only after we do so, we will be able to tell you if other players were involved.