New Delhi:
Two months after the arrest of three cricketers for
spot-fixing in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Delhi Police today filed a chargesheet naming underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his aide Chhota Shakeel as the fountainheads of the fixing and betting racket in India.
This is the first time in more than a decade that Dawood has been named as an accused in any case. The 6,000-page chargesheet names a total of 39 persons as accused for offences of cheating and conspiracy under sections of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). 10 of the accused are absconding.
The chargesheet, filed before Additional Sessions Judge Vinay Kumar Khanna, said that it was Dawood who decided the initial betting rates for each match in the premier Twenty20 tournament. It also said that the syndicate run by the underworld don was responsible for maintaining discipline in this illegal fixing-betting market by ensuring that commitments were honoured by criminal intimidation and muscle power.
The Delhi Police, in the chargesheet, has also said that one of the voices, in the call intercepts, has been identified as that of Dawood by a person whose identity has not been disclosed for safety reasons.
Other accused in the case include suspended 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.
While Sreesanth and Chavan are out on bail, Chandila remains in custody.
The Delhi Police has moved court for the cancellation of bail granted to Sreesanth, Chavan and 19 others. They have also got non-bailable warrants against Dawood and Chota Shakeel.
The chargesheet was 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.