New Delhi:
Rs 20 lakh were reportedly recovered by the Delhi Police today in a raid at the residence of a relative of arrested player Ajit Chandila. Police sources claimed that Chandila during his interrogation had told the cops that a part of the cash he received for spot-fixing was stashed in his kit back at a relative's house. The cricketer had reportedly accompanied the police during the raid at his aunt's house near Delhi last night. Chandila was in touch with not one, but four sets of bookies and was willing to be available for fixing matches, according to sources.
Here are the 10 latest developments in the case:
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which is conducting an internal inquiry into the spot-fixing scandal, will send an anti-corruption official with the team during the Champions Trophy to be held in England next month. Ravi Sawani, the chief of the BCCI's anti-corruption wing, met with officials from the Delhi Police today. (Read)
The Delhi Police today also collected voice samples of the bookies and the arrested cricketers - S Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Chandila. The cops will now match the samples with the conversations it has recorded. The police says it has enough evidence to make a strong case against the three arrested players. It is also probing a wider nexus, which it alleges, is linked to Dubai and Pakistan.
The Delhi Police yesterday arrested a former Ranji player, Manish Guddewar, and two more alleged bookies in the fixing probe. Guddewar, 32, used to play the Ranji Trophy for Vidarbha from 2003 to 2005. He has known Chandila since 2000 and used to practice cricket with the tainted Rajasthan Royals player, according to reports. Sources claim it was Guddewar who got Chandila in touch with other bookies. He was arrested from Aurangabad and will be produced in court later today.
Along with Guddewar, the police has also arrested alleged fixers Sunil Bhatia, 44, and Kiran Dole, 43. Their exact role is still being probed. The three were arrested after their phones were put on surveillance by police. Sources claim a cricketer who plays with the Railways is also under the scanner.
Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Chandila were interrogated for the fourth day today. Yesterday, they were questioned together for the first time and while, all three confessed to their crime, they blamed each other for dragging them into spot-fixing, according to sources. However, these confessions are not admissible in a court of law as they have not been recorded before a magistrate.
Along with the Delhi and Mumbai Police, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) will also probe the spot-fixing case to find out if there was any money laundering involved.
Law Minister Kapil Sibal has said that his ministry will work on a new set of laws that can effectively deal with match-fixing in all sports. "Don't think law against cheating deals adequately with fixing in sports," Mr Sibal said yesterday. He also spoke to Sports Minister Jitendra Singh on the issue.
IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals has said that they will file an FIR against its three arrested players for allegedly cheating the public and the franchise. Sources in the Delhi Police had claimed that the management of Rajasthan Royals may be questioned in the case.
On Friday night, the Mumbai Police in a raid recovered a laptop, mobile phones, iPads and cash worth Rs. 72,000 from the two rooms of a hotel in the city in which Sreesanth and his friend and alleged bookie Jiju Janardhan were staying. Diaries, written in English and Malayalam, were also recovered; cops say several of the entries were made by Sreesanth himself. Sreesanth had independently checked into a five-star hotel just two days before his arrest.
The Mumbai Police last week arrested six bookies including Ramesh Vyas, which it says is a "prized catch." Vyas, according to police sources, has links with Sunil Dubai, an alleged mediator between bookies and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's brother Anees Ibrahim. 32 of the 92 phones seized during Vyas's arrest, in fact, had been used for calls, several which have been traced to Dubai and Pakistan. The bookie's arrest could help cops track the source of funds which, sources say, could have been routed through hawala channels, which has brought the involvement of the Mumbai underworld under the scanner. (Read: The D-gang connection)
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