Sreesanth

New Delhi, June 10: A judge today granted bail to S. Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan in the spot-fix case after giving Delhi police an earful for slapping a tough Maharashtra law on the Rajasthan Royals cricketers without “sufficient evidence” of links with organised crime.

The court also allowed 17 others to walk out of jail, saying the special cell needed to establish why it had booked them under the MCOCA for the scandal the police claim was masterminded by fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim.

“There is prima facie no sufficient evidence and material against the accused to establish their nexus with organised crime syndicate as claimed by police. There is no reason for believing that the accused are guilty under the MCOCA at this stage,” additional sessions judge Vinay Kumar Khanna said, rapping the cops for “misuse of this stringent provision”.

Suspects booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act can be denied bail for up to a year.

The relief for the suspended Royals’ players came nearly four weeks since their May 16 arrest on spot-fixing charges. The third cricketer arrested that day — their teammate Ajit Chandila — and six other bookies and alleged fixers have not yet applied for bail.

“Now the rest of the accused will also get bail on grounds of parity,” said Anubhav Mishra, a lawyer.

On June 4, the day fellow accused Gurunath Meiyappan and Vindoo Dara Singh walked free on bail from a Maharashtra jail, Delhi police had clamped the tough law on all the 26 men in their custody, claiming they were part of D-company’s crime syndicate.

But judge Khanna said he wasn’t satisfied. “What material do you have to show the nexus between the accused and those running the syndicate? Show me what material/evidence you have to prove it,” he said.

Public prosecutor Rajiv Mohan said the police would furnish more evidence later. “Right now we have only purported recorded conversations of cricketers, bookies and Dawood Ibrahim along with recorded statements of the accused,” he told the judge.

“The court is not satisfied…. It’s not a game of hide-and-seek. You have spoken a lot about syndicate and MCOCA provisions but you have to establish why you slapped the charges against the accused. This is nothing but a misuse of this stringent provision,” the judge said.

“Police have not placed enough material to back their allegations,” the court added.

“What evidence do you have to show that Dawood Ibrahim was running the racket and all these accused were involved? You have spoken a lot about (the) investigation part and also defined a lot about the MCOCA but now the time has come for you to show evidence as to whether all these accused can be booked under it or not,” the judge said to claps from defence lawyers.

Mohan fumbled for an answer when the judge asked why the police had not clamped the stringent provision against the accused when they were arrested on May 16.

“Why didn’t you invoke the MCOCA then? I have read the FIR and police do not have any material now to justify why they invoked it...” he said.

When the prosecution said the police had got a whiff of the scandal on March 26 and started recording conversations of the bookies and cricketers from May 9, the judge said: “Show me the case diary before May 9 or anything that you were probing as you got to know about it on March 26.”

On betting, the court said it was a global phenomenon. “Online betting has become a fact of life. It is not only in cricket but in all sports. Law has to tackle it. If you start arresting people on betting charges then you will have to produce lakhs of people.”

Mohan told the court spot-fixing and betting were different things.

While granting bail, the court asked Sreesanth and the others to surrender their passports. “They cannot travel abroad, but they are free to travel within the country,” the judge said

Sreesanth’ friend Jiju Janardhan was among those who got bail today.