The Mumbai crime branch is set to submit the chargesheet against Chennai Super Kings team principal Gurunath Meiyappan and 19 other accused in the IPL betting scandal in the last week of August, the police said on Tuesday. The officials claimed that there is sufficient technical evidence to nail Meiyappan in the betting case.
The crime branch officials further maintained that unlike the Delhi police, which filed a chargesheet on Tuesday in the IPL spot-fixing case stating underworld links of the accused, their chargesheet would have no mention of the underworld.
“We have sufficient intercepted telephonic conversations of Meiyappan with Bollywood actor-cum-bookie Vindoo Dara Singh, in which they are talking about placing bets. They made at least five calls to each other with regard to every match they placed bets on,” said a crime branch official requesting anonymity.
The police has also seized the cellphones of Meiyappan and Vindoo with which they were in touch with each other.
“We will submit the chargesheet against Meiyappan and other accused in the betting case in the last week of August,” said an officer privy to investigation, adding that it would have names of 24 accused, including the 20 arrested accused.
Those who have been arrested include Vindoo, Meiyappan, Shobhan Mehta alias Shobhan Kalachowky, Tinku Delhi, Devendra Kothari, Ramesh Vyas, Kishor Pune, etc. Those who are wanted include Sanjay and Pawan Chabbra, also known as Jaipur brothers, Chandresh Jain alias Jupiter and Badri.
However, the investigators have not showed Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf as accused in the case yet, as they have still not interrogated him. Also, they could not interrogate Jaipur brothers who allegedly gave expensive gifts to Rauf before fleeing to Dubai with the help of Vindoo, as the police crackdown on betting rackets began in the city.
The Jaipur brothers have been given interim relief from arrest by the high court as they have applied for an anticipatory bail application (ABA) and got their statements recorded.
The next hearing for the ABA is on August 6. The police is also planning to approach the court to seek issuance of a Letter Rogatory (LR) against Rauf, to be able to interrogate him.