Chargesheet to focus on betting

The Mumbai police crime branch will file an 11,609page chargesheet in the IPL scandal on Saturday.
The police says it has made a watertight case against the 22 arrested accused, including CSK team principal Gurunath Meiyappan, as 80 per cent of their evidence is technical evidence that will stand strong scrutiny in court.The naming of Gurunath Meiyappan is a setback for BCCI president N.Srinivasan in the ongoing IPL cases he faces.Highly-placed sources say the chargesheet will be restricted to only betting and will not focus on spotfixing in IPL matches. The chargesheet will name Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf as a suspect in the case, but not as an accused, another source confirmed.Gurunath Meiyappan and the other accused have been charged under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, Sections 4 and 5 of the Gambling Act and IPC Sections 465, 466, 468, 471, 490, 420, 212, 120B and 34.Bookies Sanjay Jaipur and Pawan Jaipur have not been arrested as the Bombay high court has given them till September 30 to move the Supreme Court for anticipatory bail after it rejected the same.The naming of Gurunath Meiyappan is a setback for BCCI president N. Srinivasan in the ongoing IPL cases he faces. But, having disassociated himself from his son-in-law in cleverly describing Mr Meiyappan as an “enthusiastic person“ of the India Cements-owned IPL team CSK and not its “Team Principal“ or “Owner“, it is unlikely that his being charged with serious criminal offences would be a hurdle for Mr Srinivasan's bid to get a year's extension in the BCCI.BCCI insiders say it would be up to the Supreme Court to pass judgment on the legality, or otherwise, of Mr Srinivasan seeking reelection. However, there is nothing in the BCCI constitution against the president as he has personally not been charged with any offences. The apex court has so far not been in a hurry to take on the PIL related to IPL and the Mumbai police case.After around 127 days of the first arrest in the case, the property cell of the Mumbai police is set to file the chargesheet in the case on Saturday with unit in-charge PI Nandkumar Gopale as the case investigation officer.On May 14, the police raided a Kalbadevi flat and arrested four people, including bookie Ramesh Vyas, and seized around 92 cell phones, of which 30 were being used to connect Indian bookies to bookies operating from Pakistan and Dubai to place bets on IPL matches.All eyes would be on the court and its pronouncements on the subject of the father-in-law of a chargesheeted person, who is also the managing director of the team-owning firm, who intends to get himself re-elected at this month's BCCI AGM. Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf, wanted by the police in connection with betting, has not been charged and might be named as only a suspect. “We still need to verify some things before labelling him an accused in the case,“ said a senior officer.To support its case, the police has voice sample analyses and forensic lab reports as evidence along with conversations between Meiyappan and Vindoo Dara Singh. While a total 196 witnesses have been named in the chargesheet, none from the BCCI will be called as a witness.