The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Justice Mudgal Committee whether it will be willing to conduct further probe against N Srinivasan and 12 others including some prominent cricketers in the IPL spot fixing and betting scandal.
A bench headed by Justice A K Patnaik said the committee will be given assistance by investigating agencies if it agrees to conduct further probe against 13 people who were named by it in a sealed envelope after it conducted initial investigation in the scandal.
The Board also informed the court that it has decided to constitute a three-member panel to further probe the scandal but the bench said it will pass the order after hearing all the parties and after considering Justice Mudgal Committee’s reply.
The all-powerful working committee of the Board, in its emergent meeting on April 20, had decided to suggest the names of former India all—rounder Ravi Shastri, former Calcutta high court Chief Justice JN Patel and ex—CBI director R K Raghavan as members of the probe committee.
The bench also allowed Mr. Srinivasan and BCCI to hear some portions of Justice Mudgal Committee’s interactions with Srinivasan, M S Dhoni and Chief Operating Officer of IPL 7 Sundar Raman.
It asked the probe committee to provide audio recordings to the Supreme Court’s Secretary General who will make arrangements for BCCI and Mr. Srinivasan’s counsel to hear the tapes in the apex court.
The court asked the Board and Mr. Srinivasan to maintain complete confidentiality of the contents of the audio tapes and not to leak it to anybody.
“Any content of the audio recordings going out means cricket would be blackened in the country,” the bench said.
The audio recordings will be heard in the presence of Secretary General by advocate Amit Sibal on behalf of Srinivasan and advocate Rohini Musa on behalf of the Board.
The apex court had on April 16 expressed reservations over a SIT or CBI probe, saying that institutional autonomy of the Board has to be maintained and a committee constituted by the BCCI to look into the issue would be preferred.
The court had said that it cannot “close its eyes” to the allegations made by its probe committee in the scandal and a probe must be conducted to clear the air as some prominent players were named in the report submitted in sealed envelop.
