Delhi Police intercepts show that Sreesanth, Chavan, Chandila conspired with bookies: report

If news reports are to be believed, then Delhi Police intercepts have strengthened the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) decision to refuse to lift the ban on cricketers S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandil and Ankit Chavan.

A Delhi court last month had discharged the former Rajasthan Royals cricketers who were accused in the 2013 spot-fixing case, saying the police had failed to gather “all necessary ingredients to establish a prima facie case” under stringent MCOCA.

However, CNN-IBN claimed that they were in possession of several tapes of conversations between the cricketers and bookies — and even broadcast a conversation between Chandila an alleged bookie.

The tapes apparently revealed that all three cricketers were in touch with bookies during the IPL in 2013 — and that Sreesanth fixed a performance during a Royals vs Kings XI Punjab match in May that year.

It was also claimed that Chavan fixed a deal worth Rs 60 lakhs with bookies.

The news follows hot on the heels of the Delhi Police deciding to file an appeal in the high court against the lower court’s order discharging all the 36 accused in the case.

“Delhi Police has decided to file an appeal in the IPL spot fixing case against the discharge of the accused. We have already got approval of the Law Department of Delhi government and Commissioner of Police,” Special Commissioner of Delhi Police’s Special Cell SN Srivastava told media persons in New Delhi on 14 August.

The court had dropped all charges against the accused and held that the Special Cell of Delhi Police had been unable to establish any “nexus” or link between accused and crime syndicate allegedly run by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his close aid Chhota Shakeel who have been declared as proclaimed offenders in the case along with one Sandeep.

Despite the clean chit from the court, the BCCI upheld the ban on the cricketers.