New Delhi:
Two months after the arrest of three cricketers for spot-fixing in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Delhi Police are all set to file a chargesheet on Tuesday naming underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his aide Chhota Shakeel as the fountainheads of the fixing and betting racket in India.
This will be the first time in more than a decade that Dawood is named as an accused in any case. The police are likely to claim in their chargesheet that the Dubai and Karachi based gangster was finalising the betting rates himself.
Other accused in the case include Rajasthan Royals cricketers S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankit Chavan, who were arrested in May on the basis of phone conversations and footage of IPL matches where they were caught giving predetermined signals to bookies.
Sources say Sreesanth is likely to be described as a facilitator, the one who was executing the plan and fully aware of the conspiracy. Sreesanth and Chavan are out on bail, but Chandila remains in custody.
The 6000-page charge sheet will have annexures including phone conversations, voice sample reports, forensic reports and confessional statements. All accused are likely to be booked under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
But the main accused in the case is likely to be bookie Ashwini Aggarwal, also known as Tinku Mandi. Police claim he is the main link between Indian bookies and the underworld. They have phone conversations between Tinku Mandi and Javed Chotani, Dawood's aide. Some of these conversations were played out in open court a few weeks back.
The police had also played out tapes in court which allegedly contain Dawood's voice. These tapes will also be submitted as evidence, though Dawood's voice sample has not been matched yet.
The list of prosecution witness is likely to have some heavy weights, including Rajasthan Royals captain Rahul Dravid, former BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale, IPL CEO Sundar Raman and the Rajasthan Royals team management.
Rajasthan Royals co-owner Raj Kundra may not be named either as an accused or suspect but his associate Umesh Goenka's statement will be used to implicate other bookies and fixers.
The police will also attach statements of two more Rajasthan Royals players Sidharth Trivedi and Harmeet Singh, who said bookies had approached them for spot-fixing. The chargesheet is also likely to include confessional statements of seven bookies including Sunil Bhatia, Ramesh Vyas, Tinku Mandi, Feroz and Deepak.
The chargesheet is being filed just days before N Srinivasan returns to the post of BCCI president, which he was forced to temporarily relinquish following allegations of betting and fixing against his son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan.
Sources say there will be some sharp words of criticism for the IPL management.
Delhi Police is likely to comment on how unrestricted access to team dugouts, post-match parties, and free access to players at hotels have allowed bookies and fixers to thrive in this league for years.