The Mumbai police on Saturday chargesheeted Gurunath Meiyappan, former Team Principal of Chennai Super Kings and son-in-law of BCCI chief N. Srinivasan, and 21 others for gambling, cheating and criminal conspiracy in the scam-tainted Twenty20 Indian Premier League case.
Actor Vindoo Dara Singh is another accused, while Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf, along with 15 alleged Pakistan-based bookies and two Dubai-based bookies, is among the 24 persons shown as wanted accused in the 11,609-page chargesheet filed before additional chief magistrate Uday Padwad. Both Mr Meiyappan and Mr Vindoo Dara Singh deny any wrongdoing.
Mr Meiyappan has been accused of compromising confidential information about his team, Chennai Super Kings, and using the same for betting. He was alleged to have been in constant touch with Vindoo Dara Singh. The crime branch has relied upon several intercepted telephone conversations between the two to corroborate the charges of betting and cheating.
According to the crime branch, various calls between Mr Meiyappan and Vindoo revealed that the former CSK Team Principal allegedly leaked information such as team combination, strategy etc to Vindoo, who then placed bets, allegedly on behalf of Mr Meiyappan. Vindoo also passed on the information to other bookies.
In a conversation intercepted on May 12, Mr Meiyappan told Vindoo that his team was going to score between 130 and 140 runs on that day. Accordingly, Mr Meiyappan placed bets against his own team and on the victory of Rajasthan Royals, while Vindoo shared the information further with other bookies. CSK made 141 runs against Rajasthan Royals and lost the match.