IPL 2013 spot-fixing controversy: Chennai Super Kings’ owner’s relative under the scanner, says Police
Vindoo Dara Singh (L) was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the bookies allegedly involved in the ongoing spot-fixing scandal © PTI
Mumbai: May 22, 2013
The Mumbai Police on Wednesday have found Vindoo Dara Singh’s phone call logs linking him to a relative of the owner of a powerful franchise in the Indian Premier League.
Vindoo Dara Singh was arrested by the Mumbai Police crime branch after they had reasons to believe he had links with bookie Ramesh Vyas, who was arrested for his alleged involvement in the spot-fixing scandal.
“The team owner’s relative’s mobile number has repeatedly shown up in Vindoo’s call records, which we’ve been scanning for the past three days. The officer said that it was too early to say if the team owner was involved in the betting racket. We have not yet established whether it was just betting or there was fixing too,” a police official said, as reported by Times of India. Though the newspaper report does not name the relative, TV channels have named Gurunath Meiyappan — Chennai Super Kings Team Principal and CEO and also the son-in-law of BCCI chief N Srinivasan — and say that he could be summoned for questioning.
Investigations revealed that a series of conversations between Vindoo, Vyas and the CSK team owner’s relative took place. “It’s not just one conversation; we have enough evidence to establish the relative’s role in the racket,” a police officer said.
The officer also said that they plan to question the relative before taking further action. Reports suggest that Vindoo would have been the key middleman in the betting syndicate, involving the cricketers and bookies in the tournament. The police interrogated him for eight hours before taking him into custody.
He was recently seen with the relative at the home ground of their team. “We need to find out if there was anything more to it,” the officer said.
Police have also alleged that some Bollywood personalities have placed bets through Vindoo. JCP (crime) Himanshu Roy said, “We will investigate if Vindoo was in touch with the three arrested cricketers. He is alleged to have alerted bookies and helped them flee.”
Roy said he had informed the Enforcement Directorate and income tax authorities of possible money laundering and tax evasion.
Police also arrested Alpesh Patel (39) and Prem Taneja (39), two hawala operators to recover as much as Rs 1.28 crore from Patel’s Kalbadevi office.