A Billion Betrayed For A Few Lakhs

A Billion Betrayed For A Few Lakhs 3 Players, 11 Bookies Held; Police Won’t Say If Other Teams, Matches Are Clean Neeraj Chauhan TNN  New Delhi: Indian cricket’s worst-kept secret was well and truly out on Thursday when Delhi Police presented audio and video evidence of spot fixing in three IPL matches, including one on Wednesday night. Three Rajasthan Royal players, including India international S Sreesanth, have been caught striking deals – ranging from Rs 40 to Rs 60 lakh – with bookies for conceding a pre-determined number of runs in an over.     Armed with what appears to be incontrovertible evidence, Delhi Police sleuths moved in to arrest the three crickets – Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan – in Mumbai in the early hours of the morning when they were still in bed. As many as 11 bookies have been nabbed, including those with fanciful code names like Jupiter and Manoj Metro. One bookie arrested in Ahmedabad, Amit Singh, played for Rajasthan Royals last season and was part of the extended team this year.     The mastermind of the spot-fixing racket, Sunil Ramchandani, is in Dubai, raising suspicion of it being linked to a bookie cartel controlled from Dubai by Tiger Memon, the most trusted aide of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. Delhi Police chief Neeraj Kumar said more arrests were expected, and there were reports late at night of two more arrests in Mumbai.But overshadowing the story of the crooked bookmakers was the shame that had engulfed Indian cricket. Sreesanth, the talented but temperamental seamer was seen by millions of cricket lovers as Team India’s lucky mascot, having helped the team claim two World Cup titles — T20 in 2007 and ODI in 2011. But on Thursday, India discovered his seamier side.     Sreesanth and his two teammates, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, were among 14 people arrested from Mumbai and Delhi, after special cell cops got confirmation of the racket when they found Chavan had bowled an over exactly as discussed with bookies earlier in the day. Police said spot-fixing had taken place during three Rajasthan Royals matches this season — on May 5, 9 and 15 — against Pune Warriors, Kings XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians. The disclosure sent shockwaves across the cricketing world, drawing a torrent of quips and comments on social media. Rajasthan Royals’ owners, BCCI and ICC pledged full cooperation with the investigations.     Sources told TOI that Friday’s match between Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and RR was also under the scanner. ‘Other players also took money’  New Delhi: While Neeraj Kumar, in a press conference, ruled out the involvement of any other cricketer, team management person or owner in the racket, sources told this paper that several groups of bookies were operating in all cities and as per their information, other players too had taken money from bookies but did not exactly carry out their bidding.     Delhi Police traced a call in mid-March this year made from a Dubai number, while tracking a gangster, where they heard people talk about signs to be used in the cricket ground. Neeraj Kumar called this a “chance intercept”. The information was developed and it was learnt that the underworld was using bookies in IPL to make crores of rupees and some players were conniving with them.     “We had information about bookies from Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab and other states involved in this spot fixing, who were working on directions of the underworld,” said S N Srivastava, special commissioner (special cell).     After the intercept, a team of Inspector Badrish Dutt, who was later found dead along with his live-in partner Geeta Sharma in Gurgaon last week, and Inspector Kailash Bisht started intercepting calls of some bookies. In all, sources say some 40 phones including that of these three cricketers and others, were put under surveillance from the beginning of this IPL, that is, April 3. Senior police brass, including Special CP S N Srivastava and Joint CP M M Oberoi, monitored the highly secret investigations on a daily basis. TNN