New Delhi:
Two months after the Delhi Police arrested three cricketers for spot-fixing in the sixth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the special cell of the Delhi Police will file its chargesheet in court on Tuesday.
The special cell had invoked the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the case, and all accused are likely to be booked under the act. Most of the accused in this case are out on bail except a few including cricketer Ajit Chandila.
It will be a 6000-page long charge sheet, which will have annexures including phone conversations, voice sample reports, forensic reports and confessional statements.
Underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and Chota Shakeel will be named as accused in the case. This will be the first time in more than a decade that Dawood is named as an accused in any case.
Dawood and Chota Shakeel will be described as fountain heads, who are controlling the fixing and betting syndicate in India. Police are likely to claim that Dawood was finalising betting rates himself.
Other accused in the case will include Rajasthan Royals cricketers S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankit Chavan. Sreesanth is likely to be described as a facilitator, one who was executing the plan and was fully aware of the conspiracy.
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.
Police had also played out tapes 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 former BCCI secretary Sanjay Jagdale, IPL CEO Sundar Raman, Rajasthan Royals captain Rahul Dravid and the team management.
Police are also going to attach statements of Sidharth Trivedi and Harmeet Singh, both Rajasthan Royals cricketers who say that bookies had approached them for spot-fixing.
There is likely to be no mention of Rajasthan Royals co-owner Raj Kundra as an accused or suspect. But his associate, Umesh Goenka's statement will be used to implicate other bookies and fixers.
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 a few days before former BCCI boss N Srinivasan returns to his former post. 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.