New Delhi:
The Delhi Police yesterday made three fresh arrests in the spot-fixing case which include a former Ranji player. Manish Guddewar, 32, used to play the Ranji Trophy for Vidarbha from 2003 to 2005. He has known Ajit Chandila since 2000 and used to practice cricket with the tainted Rajasthan Royals player. Sources say it was Guddewar who got Chandila in touch with other bookies. He was arrested from Aurangabad and will be produced in court later today.
Here are the top 10 developments in the case:
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.
Police sources also claim that Chandila was in touch with not one, but four sets of bookies and was willing to be available for fixing matches.
Sreesanth, Chavan and Chandila were interrogated for the third day yesterday. Sources claimed 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. However, these confessions are not admissible in a court of law as they have not been recorded before a magistrate.
The Delhi Police is also collecting voice samples of the three players and will match it with the conversations it has recorded with the bookies. 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 Working Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) met today to discuss the controversy. BCCI chief N Srinivasan said that the cricket board is handicapped because it cannot control bookies. He, however, added that it has done everything in its capacity to educate the players. (Read)
Meanwhile, Law Minister Kapil Sibal spoke to Sports Minister Jitendra Singh today and said his ministry will work on a new set of laws that can effectively deal with match fixing in all sports, not just cricket. "Need to have a separate law. Don't think law against cheating deals adequately with fixing in sports," said Mr Sibal. (Read)
IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals today said they will file an FIR against its three arrested players - S Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila - for allegedly cheating the public and the franchise. Yesterday, sources in the Delhi Police had said 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. (Read: Highlights of Mumbai Police press conference)
The Mumbai Police has also 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. (Read: The D-gang connection)
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.
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