N Srinivasan's son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra were indulging in betting in IPL matches, the Supreme Court said today while holding them as "team officials" of their respective IPL teams Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR).
"The three-member committee headed Justice Mukul Mudgal has correctly appreciated the facts as emerging from the documents and the depositions of witnesses recorded by it and rightly come to the conclusion that Gurunath Meiyappan was a team official of CSK," a bench headed by Justice T S Thakur said.
"That is so especially when India Cements Ltd who owns the team made a candid admission before us that Meiyappan was indeed a team official within the meaning of that expression under the rules. We, therefore, see no...Reason, for us to disagree or reverse the finding recorded by the Probe Committee on that aspect," the bench, also comprising Jutice F M I Khalifulla, said.
The apex court also said that probe committee has, on the basis of the material available to it, held that Meiyappan was indulging in betting and the findings did not call for interference.
"We make it clear that given the nature of the proceedings entrusted to the Probe Committee and the standard of proof applicable to the same, we see no reason to disagree with the conclusion of the Probe Committee that Gurunath Meiyappan was indeed indulging in betting.
"The material assembled in course of the investigation by the Probe Committee provides a reasonably safe basis for holding that the accusations made against Meiyappan stood established on a preponderance of probabilities," the bench said.
Regarding RR's co-owner Kundra, the bench said that probe panel, in its February 9, 2014 report, had referred to the statement of Kundra's business partner Umesh Goenka in which he had stated that Kundra used to indulge in betting in IPL matches through him.
"So long as Mudgal Committee has conducted proceedings in consonance with the principles of natural justice, the Committee's finding that Kundra was a team official of RR and that he had indulged in betting cannot be faulted," the bench added.
