The Mumbai police crime branch, which is likely to file a chargesheet in the Indian Premier League (IPL) betting scandal case in a week, is believed to have made a watertight case against the arrested accused, including team principal of CSK, Gurunath Meiyappan. The police officials said that since they have around 80 per cent technical evidence in the case, it would stand very strongly in the court.
The crime branch has arrested 22 accused in the IPL betting case, including Bollywood actor-cum-bookie Vindoo Dara Singh, Meiyappan and many other big time bookies. The property cell of the crime branch has recordings of the telephonic conversation of around 14 accused in which accused are heard speaking to each other about betting. Investigators have also collected the voice samples of the accused and matched it with the recorded telephonic conversations. “In all, we have around 80 per cent technical evidence that makes our case stronger than the Delhi police’s, which claimed to have recording of telephonic conversation of very few accused, including underworld don Dawood Ibrahim,” said a police officer, who did not wish to be named.
Meanwhile, the Bombay high court on Monday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of two bookies, Pawan and Sanjay Jaipur, who are accused of conspiring with Singh and Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf for placing bets in the IPL T20 series. The court said it was not inclined to grant relief to Pawan and Sanjay, both brothers, after the prosecution opposed their bail saying the duo might abscond, tamper with evidence or impede trial.
The prosecution argued that there was ample material of not only their involvement in betting and gambling, but also in the entire conspiracy. According to the crime branch, the Jaipur brothers had procured SIM cards through forged documents which were later used to place bets through Singh.