NEW DELHI, May 20: Investigators today seized Rs 20 lakh stacked in a cricket kit kept in the house of a relative of arrested cricketer Ajit Chandila whose voice samples along with that of two bookies were taken to match with tapped conversations in the IPL spot-fixing scandal.
On a day of fresh developments, a domestic cricketer was detained for questioning and Rajasthan Royals lodged a complaint with Delhi Police against its three players — Chandila, Sreesanth and Ankit Chavan — accusing them of cheating and other charges.
Two persons, who watched the Rajasthan Royals matches in Chandhigarh and Mumbai, also approached police with complaints of cheating while voice samples police of Chandila and bookies Manan and Jiju Janardhan, a close friend of Sreesanth, were taken at the CFSL located in Outer Delhi’s Rohini.
BCCI’s anti-corruption unit chief Ravi Sawani, who has been asked to head the probe in spot-fixing by the cricketing body, held a meeting with Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar and other top officials and offered all help.
Police sources said Ranji player Babu Rao Yadav, who was in Railways team, was picked up for questioning from Delhi earlier in the day. “He is being questioned. It was he who allegedly arranged a meeting with Chandila and bookie Sunil Bhatia, who are already arrested.
“Yadav figured in the tapped conversations. He will be arrested if we find he is involved in it,” a senior police official said.
Seventeen people — three IPL players, two former players and 12 bookies-cum-fixers — were arrested since last Thursday in connection with the case which rocked the cricketing world.
Investigators also took Chandila to his aunt’s house in Palwal in Haryana from where they recovered Rs 20 lakh from a cricket kit which also contained his personal belongings.
“We recovered these after Chandila spoke about keeping the money there. We took him there and at his pointing out, we recovered the money. We have videographed all the proceedings,” the official said.
Police will be invoking Section 27 of Indian Evidence Act relating to recovery of articles at the behest of accused.
Officials of the Rajasthan Royals filed a complaint with Delhi Police against the three players for allegedly breaching contract and cheating people by indulging in spot-fixing, sources said.
“The team management mentioned in its complaint that three of its players were involved in discrepancies and that they came to know about unfair means adopted by them. They took the names of the players,” they said.
Two people from Chandigarh and Mumbai have also filed complaints and they will be made witnesses in the case. “We are not registering any separate case as we are adding all these complaints into the already existing case,” an official said.
After his meeting with the Delhi Police Commissioner, Sawani said the Cricket Board has assured the Delhi police of providing all possible assistance in their investigation.
“I had a fruitful meeting with Delhi police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar and other top officials. The BCCI has assured Delhi police of all its co-operation,” Sawani told reporters.
Asked whether the Delhi police investigation is going beyond the three arrested cricketers, Sawani was non- committal. “I am not at liberty to discuss anything more with you at this stage,” he said.
Sawani said the BCCI has initiated an internal inquiry to probe into the allegations of spot-fixing but refused to set any deadline for the submission of his report.
“We will hold out a separate disciplinary inquiry and once I submit my report to the disciplinary committee, the BCCI will take appropriate action based on my report. I can’t give you a definite timeframe. It will take some time to collect all the evidences in this matter,” he said.
The plea of Sreesanth that he be provided with a copy of the FIR of the IPL spot-fixing scandal case was today disposed of by a Delhi court as his lawyer did not turn up to pursue it. (PTI)
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