Dara son arrested

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Actor Vindoo Dara Singh is produced at a local court in Mumbai on Tuesday after his arrest in the IPL spot-fixing scandal. — PT

After the Delhi police shook the entire nation by arresting cricketer S. Sreesanth along with some other IPL and Ranji-level players for alleged involvement in spot-fixing in IPL-6 matches, the Mumbai police on Tuesday exposed the Bollywood-betting-match fixers’ nexus with its crime branch arresting actor Vindoo Dara Singh, son of veteran actor Dara Singh. The police claimed he was in contact with those bookies who were placing bets with bookies based in Pakistan and Dubai, and that he was also acting as a link between bookies and players to facilitate match-fixing and spot-fixing.
The Delhi police, meanwhile, claimed Sreesanth bought designer clothes worth `1.95 lakhs and gifted a Blackberry Z-10 priced at `42,000 to his girlfriend with the “spot-fixing money”. The police raided Sreesanth’s girlfriend’s residence at Jaipur on Monday and recovered the smartphone. Sreesanth, who was taken to Jaipur, led the police to her house. Sources said the cricketer apparently admitted he had “purchased” the phone with the spot-fixing money and “gifted” it to his girlfriend. The police claimed the girl was “innocent” and had “no clue”.
Last Tuesday the Mumbai crime branch had arrested one Ramesh Vyas from a Kalbadevi flat and seized 92 cellphones, of which 32 were used for call-conferencing between Indian bookies and those overseas. Investigations into Vyas’ call details and his questioning revealed that he was in regular contact with bookies in Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai, Gujarat, Pakistan and the UAE. “When we zeroed in on Jaipur-based bookies Pawan Jaipur, Sanjay Jaipur and Jupiter, we learnt actor Vindoo Singh was in contact with these bookies”, said a senior Mumbai police official. “Vindoo was called for questioning on Tuesday morning from his Juhu house, during which he confessed he was in contact with bookies. Subsequently we arrested him”, said JCP (crime) Himanshu Roy. Two of Vindoo’s cellphones were also seized and the police is now examining them, Mr Roy added.
Sources said Vindoo had placed bets of crores of rupees on IPL matches with Rajasthan-based bookies. Content found in his diaries also indicate some big money transactions.
Meanwhile, in a statement emailed to the media by his lawyer Rebecca John, Sreesanth said, “I am innocent and have done no wrong. I have never indulged in any spot-fixing and I have always played cricket in the spirit of the game.”
The JCP did not provide further details about the actor’s exact role, but police sources say Vindoo placed bets with Pawan Jaipur, Sanjay Jaipur and Jupiter during IPL matches. These bookies were in contact with Pakistan and Dubai-based bookies. During the probe, the police also realised Vindoo had developed a good rapport with the IPL players and teams. He was seen many times with several players, as well as the wife of Chennai Super Kings skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and other actors in stadiums. Investigators suspect Vindoo may have used his links with players for spot-fixing and match-fixing and are probing this angle closely, the sources added.
Besides Vindoo, the crime branch on Tuesday made two more arrests, taking the total number of those arrested in this case to nine. One of these is believed to be the brain behind the entire money trail. Vindoo and the other two accused, arrested under various sections of the IPC, Gambling Act and Information Technology Act, were produced in the Esplanade court, which remanded them to police custody till Friday.
In Jaipur, Sreesanth was taken to Mariott Hotel where he had reportedly spent money on parties. As for his shopping spree, Sreesanth used the money to buy designer jeans and clothes worth `1.95 lakh in Mumbai on May 15, the police said. He apparently paid in cash. The police claimed it had taken the statement of the store manager and that it is also trying to find out if the cricketer had done more shopping with the spot-fixing money.