Delhi Police today invoked the stringent MCOCA against suspended cricketer S Sreesanth and 22 others in the IPL spot-fixing scandal for which the "command" originated from underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's outfit.
Following this, a Delhi court remanded Sreesanth, another player Ajit Chandila and the others to further judicial custody till June 18.
"Since the accused persons were acting on command of people based abroad like Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar and Chota Shakeel who have a continuous past record of organised crimes, provisions of Maharasthra Control of Organised Crime Act have been invoked against the accused," police told Additional Sessions Judge Sanjiv Jain.
The court, in its order, referred to the approval granted by Joint Commissioner of Police Special Cell for invoking section 3 and 4 of MCOCA and also a report citing reasons for the same.
"It has been stated that the approval for invoking MCOCA has been accorded by Jt CP special cell on the premise that the arrested persons/ accused through extensive use of electronic and via media were in communication with each other and with their other associates, who are still absconding, including those associates who are based abroad.
"The illegal organised betting syndicate in India is being controlled by persons based abroad.
"The arrested accused persons have been found playing role of conspirators while others have been found acting as facilitators," the court quoted from the report.
"This organised crime syndicate besides controlling illegal betting was indulging in fixing performance of players and also the rates of betting," police told the court.
