IPL spot-fixing and Mcoca: Has the Delhi police gone overboard?

While the Mumbai police may be investigating illegal betting in the IPL and their Delhi counterparts spot-fixing, the application of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act by the Delhi police has raised questions over how the two police forces are conducting their respective probes. “It is the same sequence of events. If the players are convicted in MCOCA how can we have different yard stick for different people?“senior lawyer Gaurang Nath told CNN-IBN. Arrested cricketer S Sreesanth’s lawyer had argued that the Delhi Police has resorted to using Mcoca merely to deny bail to the accused in their custody after hearing that persons arrested by the Mumbai police were granted bail by a court.   [caption id=“attachment_844983” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Are the players being victimised while Vindoo is going scot free? IBNLive/Firstpost.[/caption] However, former Delhi Police chief Maxwell Pereira defended the Mumbai Police and said that the two police forces  are not investigating the same crime and the issue was being botched up by the media. “Delhi Police case is limited to cheating and criminal conspiracy. The whole gamut of conspiracy and the case was made out from the intercepts of the phone calls that were made,” he ssaid. Pradeep Magazine, cricket advisor to Hindustan Times, said that there is precedence of players getting caught while agencies were investigating corporate frauds or criminal activities. “This has happened even in Hansie Cronje’s time. (in his case, Magazine said that the phone tapping was done after music magnate Gulshan Kumar’s death). However, even then the major bookies are never caught because they have the protection of the police,” he said. “Here is the owner who is sitting in the dugout and it is the same person whom the bookies have alleged links with,” Magazine said.