Delhi Police Tuesday told a court here that the IPL spot fixing scandal was allegedly linked to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim as bookie Ashwini Aggarwal alias Tinku Mandey was in touch with him and his aides.
Senior public prosecutor Rajiv Mohan told Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Lokesh Kumar Sharma that interception of various telephone calls suggested that "several big names may be involved in the case as calls were made to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim".
Mohan added: "We are missing the link of the whole episode which will be proved very soon. Some big names are also involved which I cannot disclose at this stage and they were in regular contact with D-company."
"Mandey had been in regular touch with the don's men and players," police told the court.
"We started our investigation after intercepting calls made from India to a man named Dawood based abroad," said a police official. Police suspect the number they were tracking belongs to Dawood Ibrahim.
"Mandey got calls from a man from India," the official added.
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"We started tracking the second man who made the calls. We are also trying to identify this caller who was talking to Tinku Mandey, a bookie who was indulging in spot fixing," the official said.
The court directed Tihar Jail authorities to present Mandey before a Mumbai court, which issued production warrants against him.
"The accused should be brought back before June 4, the day when Mandey's judicial custody will expire here," said the court. Mandey was earlier sent to Tihar Jail for judicial custody till June 4, after police said he was no longer needed for interrogation.
So far, Delhi Police have arrested 22 accused in the spot fixing scandal.
Crickers S. Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila, who played for Rajasthan Royals team in the IPL, were also arrested in Mumbai by Delhi Police for their alleged involvement in spot fixing in matches for payments up to Rs.60 lakh for giving away pre-determined number of runs in an over.