The Justice Mukul Mudgal panel has held that Raj Kundra, co-owner of Rajasthan Royals, was guilty of betting and he violated the IPL anti-corruption code.
In its final report released on Monday, the panel said: “Mr. Raj Kundra was in touch with bookies about betting. Materials on record indicate that he was placing bets. These infractions violated the BCCI/IPL anti-corruption code.”
In its interim report, the panel had stated that the allegations of betting and spot-fixing against Mr. Kundra needed further investigation and in its final report the panel confirmed his guilt in betting.
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On March 28, the Supreme Court asked N. Srinivasan to step down as BCCI president pending inquiry and he was replaced by former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar to conduct IPL-14 matches. Another cricketer Shivlal Yadav was entrusted with non-IPL activities.
In May, following the panel’s initial report, the Supreme Court gave the Mudgal committee wide powers to investigate the contents of the sealed envelope indicating allegations on the role of certain cricket players. The panel took the assistance of the investigation team led by IPS officer B.B. Mishra, and former Indian team captain Sourav Ganguly as a cricketing expert and the committee, in its final report, appreciated his contribution.
The final report was submitted in a sealed cover early this month, one dealing with officials and the other dealing with nine players. For the present only the report relating to the officials had been directed to be released and the one on players had been withheld.
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Pursuant to the direction given by a Bench of Justices T.S. Thakur and Ibrahim Kalifulla on November 14, petitioner Adithya Verma of the Cricket Association of Bihar had impleaded Gurunath Meiyappan, Mr. Kundra and IPL Chief Operating Officer Sundar Raman to enable them to receive copies of the final report and file their response in four days.
> Read full report of Mudgal panel