A Rajasthan Royals’ player was on Wednesday made a prosecution witness by the Delhi Police in the IPL spot-fixing scandal and his statement was recorded before a court here, tightening the agency’s case against three cricketers. According to police sources, RR player Harmeet Singh told the court that bookies had urged him to indulge in spot-fixing during 2012 and 2013 editions of IPL but he did not entertain their advances. A left arm spinner from Mumbai, Singh recorded his statement in-camera under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Lokesh Kumar Sharma. As the process of recording his statement before the magistrate was completed, the police listed him as a prosecution witness and he will again testify in the court, during the trial, about the alleged offer made to him by his arrested teammate Ajit Chandila and bookies.
Earlier, Rajasthan Royals bowler Sidharth Trivedi, who had played for Saurashtra in Ranji for past 10 years, had also recorded his statement before the magistrate and had given details about the three arrested players — S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankit Chavan— and other bookies, their meetings, etc.
In a related development, bookie Ashwani Aggarwal retracted before additional sessions judge Renu Bhatnagar from his confessional statement recorded by the police saying it was recorded by force, undue influence and coercion. Ashwani said in his application that the Delhi police special cell officials have threatened him.