Mumbai/ Delhi: The Mumbai police, probing the IPL betting scandal, on Monday rejected the charge of not cooperating with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) panel that looked into spot and match-fixing allegations in the IPL, saying its investigating officer could not depose before it for want of legal provisions.
[That the Mumbai police had asked under what provision in law the BCCI wanted help was reported by The Telegraph on Monday.]
The denial comes a day after a two-member panel of Justice T. Jayaram Chouta and Justice R Balasubramanian that probed the allegations against Narayanswamy Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan, India Cements Ltd, which owns IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings, and Jaipur IPL Pvt Ltd, owner of Rajasthan Royals, gave them all a clean chit on account of lack of evidence of wrongdoing.
“Anybody can give anybody a clean chit. It does not matter. What matters is the rule of law. We have enough evidence against Gurunath Meiyappan to nail him in the court of law. And it is for the court to decide who is guilty — not any other body or panel.
“There is no question giving clean chit to him. We have not finished with our investigation yet and are looking for custody of Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf to probe him for his role in betting scandal. We will be soon filing a chargesheet in this case,” joint commissioner (crime) Himangshu Roy said.
Roy added: “There is no question of not cooperating in this case. An officer who investigates criminal cases under the Code of Criminal Procedure is answerable only to the court.
The BCCI had asked Mumbai police on June 28 to send an inspector-level officer to depose before its panel on July 7 but their request was turned down.
“Yes, the BCCI had sought the evidence that we had on Meiyappan. We had asked the BCCI to stipulate the provisions for allowing such sharing of evidence with a private investigating body.
“But we did not get any reply from them. Public servants are not required to depose before non-constitutional bodies,” said Roy.
Meanwhile, Delhi police are likely to file a chargesheet on Tuesday naming Dawood Ibrahim, three Rajasthan Royals players and several others.
“Chargesheet in the IPL spot-fixing case will be in all likelihood filed tomorrow,” sources in the Delhi police said on Monday.
The special cell of Delhi police will be naming Dawood Ibrahim, they said. Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila, along with more than 30 people, are likely to be made accused, sources said.
The chargesheet will be filed under stringent sections of MCOCA and IPC.
Delhi police commissioner Neeraj Kumar had earlier expressed his desire that chargesheet in this high profile case be submitted before he retires on July 31.
The three players of Rajasthan Royals along with 11 bookies, were arrested during the IPL-6 in May.
Another 15 people were arrested later.
Twenty-one accused in the case, including Sreesanth and Chavan, have been granted bail by a court, while the others, including Chandila are in judicial custody.
