IPL betting: ED looks at 3 IPL matches after it arrests 2 bookies

ED sources identified those arrested by its Ahmedabad unit on Friday as Mukesh Sharma and Sukhvinder Singh Sodhi from New Delhi. They said officials have also issued summons to a third suspect Anil Jaisinghania from Thane who complained of ill-health and got himself admitted to a hospital after an ED team reached his house.

Two others managed to evade arrest in Jaipur.

Sources described Jaisinghania as “the key link” and said he has been asked to appear before ED officials in Ahmedabad on Monday.

Sources said Sharma and Sodhi were a “big catch” who routed money abroad, mainly to UK through the betting website betfair.com. They had the “master log-in” for the website, they said.

When contacted, IPL chairman Rajiv Shukla told The Indian Express that the ED is yet to inform the league of its findings, and said that they would cooperate with the directorate if needed.

The ED’s suspicion that the matches may have been fixed arises from the information they have about Jaisinghania’s alleged operations and from the pattern of bets allegedly placed by Sharma and Sodhi, sources in the directorate said.

“Bookies across the country were in touch with Sharma and Sodhi. We have learnt that the betting amount is remitted out of the country through hawala channels through these two accused,” said an official involved in the investigation.

They added that the duo’s alleged role had first come to light during the 2013 IPL match-fixing case that was probed by the Mumbai Police, which could not pin them down.

“We haven’t heard anything from ED yet,” IPL chief Shukla said. “As per procedure, they (ED) will get in touch with our ACSU (Anti-Corruption and Security Unit) if they needs any details. The ACSU doesn’t come under IPL governing council, it reports directly to the BCCI President. If the ED seeks anything from BCCI, we will fully cooperate,” he added.

The raids itself were not without their share of drama, with Jaisinghania refusing to open the door of his house in Thane for at least an hour, officials said.

”Finally, his wife opened the door and said he was ill. The ED team found him in bed complaining of ill-health. There was a heated argument between his wife and the officers. She grabbed all the phones used by Jaisinghania and ran away to evade investigation and since we did not have a woman officer, we were helpless,” said officials.

In Jaipur, ED officials said they recovered documents related to the racket, Rs 6.5 lakh in cash and a huge cache of jewellery from a house belonging to Vineet and Rahul Gangwal, both brothers known by the codename “Sibbu” in the betting world.

Sources said the brothers were allegedly in touch with bookies in Dubai and Pakistan mostly using Skype. The two escaped moments before the officials reached their home, sources said.

One of the reasons that has led investigators to link all those arrested was that they discovered documents related to the arrest of Ritesh Bansal, alias “Bharat Delhi,” a resident of Shastri Park in Delhi, from the house of the Gangwal brothers.

Bansal was arrested in 2013 by Mumbai police and is accused No 16 in the IPL match-fixing case. The ED arrested him again on May 10, in Gurgaon, along with his brother Ankush.

Besides, the ED has found links to other alleged bookies such as Jitu Jain alias Thorat, from Ahmedabad, and three others codenamed “Chhotu” from Nagpur, “Mandi Delhi” and “Munir Bhopal”. Sources described “Munir Bhopal” as “one of the biggest bookies” who placed bets on particular sessions during the matches.

ED officials said they zeroed in on this racket in March when they caught over a dozen bookies from a farmhouse on the outskirts of Vadodara. In that raid, they had busted two alleged bookies identified as Girish Patel alias Tommy, a resident of Unjha in north Gujarat, and Kiran Thakkar alias Mala, a resident of Maninagar, Ahmedabad.