Nine years after they were booked, court clears two in IPL betting case

A SESSIONS court discharged two men booked in the 2013 IPL alleged betting racket case for lack of evidence. The two were booked on the suspicion that they were running the betting racket from a hotel on May 14 -15, 2013.

Mumbai police had also claimed that they were involved in fixing the match along with the other accused, including international umpire Asad Rauf, with whom they were allegedly in touch with. Businessmen Sanjay Chhabra and Sandeep Chhabra’s appeal against a lower court order refusing to discharge them from the case was allowed by the sessions court on Thursday.

Among the grounds for their discharge, the court observed that a few conversations between the accused on alleged match fixing were not intercepted as per the procedure laid down for such cases, and hence could not be used. On an alleged conversation between Rauf and the two accused, the court said that no document was submitted to show what the conversation was between them. It said a text conversation between Rauf and a co-accused nowhere showed that any amount for betting was fixed.