M A I N   N E W S

Meiyappan arrested; pressure mounts on BCCI chief to quit
Shiv Kumar/KV Prasad
Tribune News Service

"We have found his (Meiyappan's) involvement in the offence related to IPL betting case," Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Himanshu Roy told reporters. Roy said Meiyappan would be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours. "We think he supplied inside information pertaining to CSK to Vindoo Randhawa, who passed on the information to bookies," Roy said. Just about an hour before his arrest, the police declared Meiyappan hostile and accused him of not co-operating with investigators.

Meiyappan reached the Mumbai police headquarters shortly before 9 pm and was immediately taken to the Unit 1 of the Crime Branch. He arrived in the city by a private chartered flight and was driven straight to the police headquarters. Meiyappan had been told to reach the Crime Branch office by 5 pm.

He was being grilled till filing of the report. According to the police, the CSK CEO had also placed bets through Vindoo and had lost as much as Rs 1 crore during the current IPL season. The police is likely to jointly quiz Meiyappan and Vindoo.

Srinivasan's woes appeared to be mounting with demands for his resignation getting louder.

Addressing a press conference here, NCP MP and chief spokesman DP Tripathi said if the BCCI chief has an "iota of morality and public accountability", then he should immediately tender his resignation since he has come under cloud following his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan's alleged involvement in the spot fixing issue.

In a matter-of-fact response to whether Srinivasan should resign taking moral responsibility, Minister of State for Sports Jitendra Kumar said: "These are all moral issues that they have to think about themselves. My Ministry has no control over the BCCI or the IPL but we need to think about the bigger picture. Rather than pointing fingers at individuals we need to think of a long-term plan".

With spot-fixing scandal in the IPL expanding by the day, the Centre today indicated it has a plan to check corruption in the game.

Reached Mumbai at 9 pm

• Meiyappan (pic) reached the Mumbai police headquarters around 9 pm on Friday
• He was immediately taken to the Unit 1 of the Crime Branch for quizzing and was arrested around midnight

Srinivasan under fire

An upset Sahara Group chief Subrato Roy on Friday lashed out at N Srinivasan (pic) and stated that it will not sponsor the Indian cricket team as long as the BCCI president stays at the helm.