M A I N   N E W S

IPL spot-fixing: Dawood, Sree, Chandila chargesheeted
Shaurya Karanbir Gurung/TNS

New Delhi, July 30
The Delhi Police filed its chargesheet in the Indian Premier League (IPL) spot-fixing case at a court here today, naming underworld fugitive don, Dawood Ibrahim, and three arrested cricketers Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan as some of the accused.

The chargesheet which runs into 6,000 pages has a list of 39 accused. Twenty-nine persons have been arrested, out of which 21 are out on bail and eight are in judicial custody.

Ten accused persons are absconding, according to Delhi Police Special Cell officers. Investigators said they have requested the court to issue non-bailable warrants against Dawood and his henchman Chota Shakeel.

The chargesheet does not name Raj Kundra, one of the owners of the IPL cricket team Rajasthan Royals, and his wife Shilpa Shetty.

As of now, Dawood, Shakeel, Javed Chutani, Ahtisham are wanted in the case and are based in Pakistan and Dubai. “We have enough evidence to prove that all these men are guilty. We will also submit a supplementary chargesheet in the case,” said Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), SN Srivastava. The police has added Sections 3 and 4 of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against all the 39 accused.

The police started investigating the case under MCOCA after it claimed to have discovered that Dawood and Shakeel had allegedly used a vast network of bookies and hawala operators across the country to run the IPL spot-fixing scam. The police has also invoked Indian Penal Code Sections 420 (cheating), 419 (cheating by personation) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) against the 39 accused. The police has removed Section 409 (criminal breach of trust) after lacking evidence to prove it in the case. The police had invoked Section 409 in the case after Rajasthan Royals had lodged a complaint against the three arrested players. “There is more evidence to prove cheating rather than criminal breach of trust,” said a police officer who is part of the case’s investigation.

The police has 168 witnesses, including IPL cricket team Rajasthan Royals captain Rahul Dravid and former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Sanjay Jagdale.

As part of its evidence in the case, Delhi Police claim to have telephonic intercepts between the players and the bookies. It has voice samples of 12 accused that have been verified by the Central Forensic Science Laboratory. It also has Dawood’s voice sample that has been verified by a person whose name has not been disclosed.

It has also submitted the voice samples of Chandila, Sreesanth’s friend Jiju Janardhan, Chavan and bookies Chandresh Patel and Kiran Dole.

The police has statements of the 29 arrested accused under Section 164 (recording of confessions and statements) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The statement under this Section is taken by the court. Investigators also have statements of some of the arrested accused under MCOCA.

In the chargesheet, the police claim to have submitted the confessional statements of bookies Ramesh Vyas, Feroz, Ashwani Aggarwal alias Tinku Mandi and Sunil Bhatia. Ramesh Vyas, in his confessional statement, said, “Dawood had asked him to work honestly with Chutani. He also threatened Vyas with dire consequences if he did not follow the brief.”

The chargsheet reads that Ashwani was in regular touch with Javed Chutani alias Doctor, who is a bookie based in Dubai. Chutani is a native of Pakistan. They were in contact for spot-fixing activities.

On March 23, the police had intercepted a telephonic conversation between a Pakistani-based number used by Dawood and Shakeel and a Dubai-based number used by Chutani. The police had also been tapping several mobile phone numbers, including that of Ashwani in March.

“The monitoring of these numbers led to the revelation of the international conspiracy of fixing or betting in the then commenced season of Indian Premier League cricket tournament and flow of illegal money generated by this organised criminal activity through hawala channels between India, Pakistan and Dubai…the investigations carried thus far in which the nexus between the said players of Rajasthan Royals and the underworld had been established,” mentions the chargesheet.

for cheating and conspiracy

• Police filed the 6,000-page charge sheet against 39 persons in which 8 are in judicial custody, 21 are out on bail and rest 10 are absconding
• All the accused have been chargesheeted for cheating and conspiracy
• The link court has fixed the matter for Wednesday before the concerned judge for consideration