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The police have arrested 19 people, including some bookies, in West Bengal, Maharashtra and Rajasthan in a crackdown following the spot-fixing scandal in the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament.
The arrests were made between last night and today in four cases. The spot-fixing story turned murkier when controversial Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf was withdrawn by the International Cricket Council from next month's Champions Trophy in the UK for his alleged role in the scandal.
The Mumbai police's crime branch today arrived at Chennai Super Kings (CSK) Principal Gurunath Meiyappan's house in the Tamil Nadu capital to issue a summons in connection with the probe. The chief security officer at Meiyappan's house received the summons; the CSK principal, also the son-in-law of Board of Control for Cricket in India chief N Srinivasan, was not in the city.
Business Standard has learnt the summons is for Meiyappan to appear before the police in Mumbai before 5 pm tomorrow. Meiyappan has sought time till Monday to do so. The police team was made to wait outside the gate for around 10 minutes before being let in by security guards.
Meiyappan was said to be in Delhi with his team, CSK. Some said he was in Kodaikanal with his wife and father-in-law, who is also the owner of CSK. Attempts to contact Meiyappan failed. CSK's public relations agency told Business Standard, "We are still awaiting feedback from CSK. We will share the feedback once we hear from them."
The scandal broke out when Delhi Police on May 15 arrested S Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila of the Rajasthan Royals team for alleged spot-fixing.
Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar today said at least three more players and one more IPL team was under the scanner. "We are investigating ...However, I cannot disclose the names, as we are in the process of gathering evidence," Kumar told PTI.
The commissioner said the focus was to complete the investigation and file a chargesheet in 60 days, "so that they are not released on bail".
The crime branch of the Tamil Nadu police said bookies arrested in Chennai for alleged spot-fixing were found to have VIP clients, including an important real estate developer. "All those involved in this case of criminal cheating and luring the gullible public will be brought to book," said Venkatraman, Deputy Superintendent of Police.
