Published: Sep 23, 2013, 11:42 AM (IST)
Edited: Sep 23, 2013, 11:42 AM (IST)
Gurunath Meiyappan was charged by the Mumbai Police for cheating and betting during the Indian Premier League 2013 © IANS
Sep 23, 2013
Months after the betting nexus in the Indian Premier League 2013 was exposed, police have revealed that 20 bookies had a four-day meeting between March 29 and April 2 just before the commencement of the tournament. They further disclosed that Chennai Super Kings Team Principal and son-in-law of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Chief N Srinivasan, Gurunath Meiyappan and Bollywood actor Vindoo Dara Singh were not present at the meet.
“Vindoo has been betting since last several years. But he did not attend since he was not part of the core group and was a punter or operated like a sub agent. He placed bets and also earned commission by placing bets for others,” a police officer was quoted as saying by The Times of India.
According to the police, the meeting concluded with grand plans of parties in Mumbai and Delhi. The bookies had discussed about communicating to their Pakistani counterparts to avoid confusion. The police believe that there were at least seven bookmakers from Pakistan with Ramesh Vyas was in touch with. Vyas was arrested by the Mumbai Police on May 18 and was considered to be the kingpin in the betting racket.
Apart from Vyas, Chandresh Patel and Badrinathan Modi, a bookie from Rajasthan had also attended the meeting.
“The bookies also had to decide on settling the financial deals. They square up the transaction at the end of the season besides finalising on the mode of transfer of money from abroad. But while the matches were on, money was transferred from abroad. In most of the cases, the money was routed through the hawala channel,” a police officer was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
The police are yet to gather concrete evidence against Meiyappan’s past records of betting but said that the matter will be clear when they questioned Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf who was in the midst of the controversy for allegedly receiving gifts from bookies.
