Pacer S. Sreesanth and 13 others were remanded in police custody for five days by a court here in the IPL spot-fixing case.
They were produced before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Lokesh Kumar Sharma at his residence adjacent to the Saket court complex. The police are believed to have told the court that they suspect the involvement of more persons in the case, and there was a possibility of more arrests.
Sreesanth and his IPL teammates Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, who were arrested in Mumbai earlier in the day, were brought to the court complex with their faces muffled, along with 11 bookies and middlemen of Mumbai and Delhi.
Reporters were barred from entering the magistrate’s residence, and a tight security cordon ensured that none got too close to them.
The police sought the custody of the suspects for seven days.
Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan sought police custody of all the accused for confronting them with each other and with electronic evidence, including data stored in their laptops. The police are also digging into the source of money allegedly received by the cricketers.
During arguments, the prosecution claimed that a huge sum was involved and a probe was on to find out how many matches were fixed.
Defence counsel, appearing for some of the accused, opposed the police plea for remand, saying their clients were falsely implicated.
Advocate Deepak Prakash, appearing for Sreesanth, told reporters that the cricketer was innocent. “The police have not produced any direct evidence against Sreesanth. He is innocent and has been framed in the case.”
Mr. Prakash alleged that the police only produced certain excerpts of the tapped conversation of bookies, in which Sreesanth’s name had not even cropped up anywhere. “He [Sreesanth] is totally broken, and now I will try for… bail after meeting him in the police station.”
Rajiv Shankar Trivedi, counsel for Chavan and Chandila, said: “The prosecution has shown some evidence. They have claimed they have recovered various mobile phones and laptops from their possession. They have also claimed that money changed hands. We are not seeing any such thing.”
