New Delhi:
The Delhi Police today arrested a bookie from Mumbai who was in direct touch with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's Pakistani operator. The bookie, Feroze, is allegedly close to Chhota Shakeel, Dawood's right-hand man.
Feroze is one of the key members of the betting syndicate - at par with arrested bookies Ramesh Vyas and Tinku Mandi, the police claims. Vyas, according to police sources, has links with Sunil Dubai, an alleged mediator between bookies and Dawood's brother Anees Ibrahim.
The Delhi Police has already said that it has credible evidence that underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his associate Chhota Shakeel control the alleged betting and spot-fixing in IPL. They have named the duo as co-accused in the case and have invoked the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act or MCOCA against the underworld bosses.
The police on Monday painstakingly detailed an alleged underworld connection to betting and spot-fixing in cricket, even reading out the transcript of what the cops claim is a phone conversation between Dawood and alleged Pakistani bookie Javed Chotani discussing what seems like a property deal.
The police say they had intercepted later conversations between Chotani, also know as "Doctor" and alleged Indian bookies Tinku Mandi and Chotu Nagpur and claim that it was these phone chats that led them to stumble upon spot-fixing in the Indian Premier League.