Court sends Mumbai bizman to ED custody in IPL betting case

A Delhi court has sent a Mumbai businessman to the custody of Enforcement Directorate till December 21 in a money laundering case related to an alleged T-20 cricket betting scandal.
Additional Sessions Judge Tarun Sahrawat allowed the ED to take custody of Bimal Ramgopal Agarwal after the probe agency sought time for interrogation to ascertain and recover the proceeds of crime.
According to ED's special public prosecutor N K Matta, Agarwal and his associates managed to collect Rs 2.75 crore from one Manoj Jain and Rs 50 lakh from another person, Surendra Kalra, for providing protection in an ED case.

The agency also alleged that the accused deposited Rs 80 lakh in the account of companies controlled by him in 2015.
The ED arrested Agarwal in connection with its money laundering probe in the cricket T-20 IPL betting case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The arrest pertains to a case the agency has been probing against its former Joint Director (Ahmedabad zone) J P Singh who was arrested by CBI on alleged corruption charges while he and his team were probing the betting case.

The case was filed on the basis of a CBI case which was registered earlier in the matter.

The CBI had said in its FIR that "it has been alleged that certain officers of the Enforcement Directorate while investigating the cases of money laundering in betting and other such activities have allegedly demanded and accepted huge illegal gratification from the accused and suspect persons in the cases".
The ED's Ahmedabad unit was probing the Rs 2,000-crore IPL betting scandal and a Rs 5,000 crore money laundering case against alleged hawala operator Afroz Fatta, in which the suspects allegedly sought favours, official sources had earlier said.
The CBI had claimed that huge bribe was allegedly taken by these officers as quid pro quo for various acts of omission and commission.