The Crime Branch CID of the Tamil Nadu police have reopened investigation into the sensational IPL cricket betting scam and summoned city-based hotelier Vikram Agarwal, one of the suspects in the case on Tuesday. This is the second time that the agency is re-investigating the seven-year-old case and has now decided to add the offence of “cheating” the public in the chargesheet.
Investigators said that Mr. Agarwal was questioned for about four hours in the CB-CID headquarters. A total of 23 persons, including Gurunath Meiyappan who was then associated with the Chennai Super Kings, alleged bookie Uttam C Jain alias Kitty, among others, were named accused in the case.
The IPL betting scam hit the headlines in 2013 triggering simultaneous investigations by the Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Delhi police. This led to the arrest or interrogation of prominent personalities directly or indirectly involved in the conduct of the matches. The issue led to the Supreme Court appointing a committee headed by Justice Mukul Mudgal to probe the scam.
“Earlier we had focused on the offence of betting and gaming. Now, we have decided to investigate the angle of cheating the public. A revised chargesheet will be filed by introducing Sections 419 and 420 of IPC.
‘Lapses rectified’
The modus operandi of the suspects in organising the betting to make money and ultimately cheat the fans has to be probed,” a senior CB-CID official confirmed to The Hindu. Parrying questions on whether investigators would look into the aspect of alleged match-fixing, the official said all issues pertaining to the betting had already been in investigated and chargesheet filed. “We will re-examine all possible angles in this case. The lapses pointed out by the trial court magistrate in the first chargesheet have been rectified,” the official who preferred not to be quoted said.
In May 2016, when the CB-CID completed investigation and filed chargesheet, the trial court magistrate sought certain clarifications, including why the investigation was “so silent” on the allegation that inside information on IPL team strategies was passed on to bookies and the role of senior IPS officer G. Sampath Kumar, who was later acquitted of all charges.
The first re-Investigation was necessitated on the basis of new evidence emerging during the Mudgal committee enquiry proceedings in 2014.
