First match was fixed,then Gurunath Meiyappan placed huge bets,say police

The CSK team principal shared inside information about the Chennai franchise with bookies.

Gurunath Meiyappan,head of the Chennai Super Kings and son-in-law of BCCI chief N Srinivasan,used to place huge bets on IPL matches after fixing the game,Mumbai Police on Saturday told a metropolitan court which sent him to police custody till May 29.

The CSK team principal shared inside information about the Chennai franchise with bookies to make money,the Mumbai Crime Branch told the court. First a particular match was fixed,then Gurunath used to place huge bets on those matches, the Crime Branch said in its remand application,adding that Meiyappan needed to be interrogated further to unravel the betting racket. Express Editorial: Disqualify CSK,sack Srinivasan

Public prosecutor Wajid Sheikh told the court that even during the matches,a large number of calls were made by Meiyappan to arrested actor Vindoo Dara Singh,who would then call bookies Jupiter,Pawan Jaipur and Sanjay Jaipur asking them to place the bets.

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The remand application said the Crime Branch also intended to investigate Meiyappans relations with controversial Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf who was allegedly in touch with bookies. It said the police also wanted to find out the financial arrangement between Vindoo and Meiyappan.

Cricket is a natural game but they make it unnatural, said Sheikh,seeking seven days police remand for Meiyappan. Also,police said they needed to seize four mobile phones used by Meiyappan.

Defence counsel Abad Ponda said Meiyappans arrest was illegal,saying if a person appears before the police pursuant to summons,he cannot be arrested. Moreover,there is no wrongful gain and nobody was cheated. In fact,Gurunath lost money, he said.

Later,speaking to mediapersons,Joint Commissioner (crime) Himanshu Roy said that as per the normal procedure,police would search the premises owned by Meiyappan to gather evidence. Meiyappan,he said,was placing bets through Vindoo,not only on matches involving his own team but other IPL entities as well for the last two years. He said though Meiyappan had lost Rs 1 crore through betting in the current IPL season,he mostly won when he betted on matches involving the Chennai franchise.

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We are trying to ascertain if they (Meiyappan and Vindoo) had telephonic conversation during the strategic timeout (2.5 minutes set aside for the teams for strategising during the match) too, he said.

Roy said Meiyappan used to facilitate Vindoos entry into the VIP hospitality box during CSKs matches. Vindoo,he said,also personally knew several players of Kolkata Knight Riders. He further claimed that Rauf fled India on being tipped off by Vindoo about an impending crackdown after the spot-fixing scandal was exposed with the arrest of three Rajasthan Royals players. Shekhar Gupta’s National Interest column: The giant fix

He said Mumbai police had seized a gift parcel containing high-end watches,denims and T-shirts that one of the bookies who Vindoo had reportedly helped escape to Dubai had sent to Rauf from Delhi airports cargo terminal.

Asked if Rauf was himself into betting or actively involved in spot- or match-fixing,Roy said being an umpire it was difficult for him to do that but he could have manipulated the results through his umpiring decisions. He said Rauf has not been made an accused in the betting case being probed by Mumbai police as of now though it has come across some instances of impropriety committed by the Pakistani umpire.