A thorough investigation into Bollywood actor-cum-bookie Vindoo Dara Singh’s involvement in the entire betting-cum-spot fixing scandal has led the police to a shocking conclusion: that he was in touch with at least 22 cricketers, including 13 foreign players.
Confirming this, a Mumbai crime branch source said this included some “big” players. Police officials say they are still checking if veteran actor Dara Singh’s son used his contacts to extract vital team information from these players, or if he used them in any other way to help his bookie friends for spot-fixing.
Taking advantage of his proximity with top Bollywood personalities and IPL team officials, Vindoo used to attend parties that included celebrities and cricketers. At the parties he developed contacts with as many as 22 players, including some of the big foreign players.
“The names of these players cropped up in interrogation and were also found in his diary. We are checking the nature of his association with these players, because as of now it is clear Vindoo was working as a front for many big bookies, including Chandresh Jain alias Jupiter, Pawan Jaipur, Sanjay Jaipur and Ashwin Agrawal alias Tinku, to extract vital information of IPL cricket teams for betting,” a crime branch official said.
“He allegedly used former CSK team principal Gurunath Meiyappan for the same, but we are checking whether he used players also for the same purpose and also if he lured them into spot-fixing or not,” the official added.
The police will produce Vindoo in court on Tuesday and seek an extension of his police custody.