How Sreesanth involved in fixing?
New Delhi: The Delhi police today revealed the modus operandi of how the three Rajasthan Royals' players got involved in spot-fixing.
The police explained that they got a tip-off and tapped the phone conversations of Sreesanth, Ajit Chandela and Ankeet Chavan along with the bookies for over 6 months.
The deal was simple between the accused: bowl an over and leak a predetermined number of runs.
The deal was promptly implemented in three different matches of Rajasthan Royals. In each of these matches, the bookies directed players to give indications or signs before bowling the over so they could get time to start fixing.
On May 9, when the Rajasthan Royals played against Kings XI Punjab in Mohali near Chandigarh, Sreesanth ran up to bowl an over with a towel tucked into the band of his trouser.
The Delhi Police allege that this was a signal to bookies that he would now fix an over. He had bowled the previous over without the towel.
The deal, the Delhi Police allege, was that Sreesanth would tuck the towel to indicate spot-fixing and then would give the bookies some time to place as many bets as possible.
On field, Sreesanth had warmed up a bit before beginning to bowl the over. He gave away more than 14 runs as fixed. Sreesanth apparently got Rs 40 lakhs which was delivered in cash.
Similarly, on May 5, when Royals played the Pune Warriors at home in Jaipur, the police alleged that Ajit Chandila was paid an advance of Rs 20 lakh by bookies to fix an over. He was asked to give more than 13 runs in the over and he duly did so.
But here's where Chandila goofed up. He was supposed to pull out his shirts as a code to the bookies which according to the Delhi police, he forgot. The police claim that there was an argument on the phone after a match, in which the bookie demanded his money back.
Ankeet Chavan, the third Royal player arrested, was paid Rs 60 lakh to give away 13 runs in sixth over in the match against Mumbai Indians on May 15th.
All the three cricketers have now been registered under Indian Penal Code section 420 and 120B, which deal with fraud, cheating and criminal conspiracy. 11 other bookies were arrested
The Delhi police said more arrests were likely in the form of bookies, but ruled out any more players being involved in this scandal. The police also mentioned that the mastermind behind this huge racket is sitting abroad.
News Posted: 16 May, 2013
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