New Delhi:
Raj Kundra, a co-owner of the Rajasthan Royals, the team at the centre of a massive spot-fixing and gambling scandal, has admitted to betting in the Indian Premier League or IPL, claimed the Delhi Police, who interrogated the businessman all day yesterday.
Speaking to reporters today, Delhi Police commissioner Neeraj Kumar said Mr Kundra has confessed that he placed bets on his own team through bookies. "He also said that he lost huge amount of money in betting," the police officer said and added that Mr Kundra placed bets through his business partner Umesh Goenka.
Mr Goenka was questioned by the Delhi Police over the last few days. He allegedly told cops that Mr Kundra gambled on IPL matches.
According to police sources, Mr Kundra has said that he placed bets on the IPL "for the last two-three years." Betting on all sports except horse-racing is illegal in India. According to rules laid down by the Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI), anyone affiliated to the team, if found guilty of betting, could be suspended for period ranging from two to five years. Also, under the IPL owner's agreement with the BCCI, a franchise could be terminated with immediate effect "if the owner acts in a way that brings disrepute to the IPL."
But the police is unlikely to book him for gambling, which is a bailable offence. The police says it wants to focus on establishing links between bookies and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's crime syndicate or "D Company."
The Royals have four owners including Mr Kundra's wife Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty.
To prevent him from leaving the country, Mr Kundra was made to hand over his passport to the Delhi Police yesterday.
Three cricketers from the Royals including S Sreesanth were arrested last month on charges that they took money from bookies to concede a pre-determined number of runs in the recently-concluded edition of the IPL. The players have denied the allegations.
Spot-fixing, in which a specific part of the match but not the outcome is fixed, is illegal.