Board of Control for Cricket in India chief N. Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was instrumental in passing on vital information about Chennai Super Kings to bookies through actor Vindoo Dara Singh, the Mumbai police told the Supreme Court-appointed panel probing the Indian Premier League-6 betting case.
Police sources said a detailed presentation with more than 140 slides was made before the panel.
These details are already part of the charge sheet filed by the Mumbai police in September, a copy of which was submitted to the panel on Wednesday. A three-member team led by Joint Police Commissioner Himanshu Roy deposed before the panel headed by the former Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Mukul Mudgal.
On Tuesday, the ICC anti-corruption unit made its deposition.
The sources say the police discarded Mr. Srinivasan’s argument that Mr. Meiyappan was not involved in running CSK. The police told the panel that Mr. Meiyappan was referred to as a team owner in emails sent by the BCCI. He was issued a blue pass which allowed him access to the venue and field of play. Also, Mr. Meiyappan was present during the IPL auction and was an integral part of the CSK management, the police told the panel. However, it did not ask the police any question on Mr. Srinivasan’s role in the case.
The police shared with the panel specific details of alleged bets, worth over Rs. 1 crore, placed by Mr. Meiyappan during the CSK-Rajasthan Royals match on May 12, the sources told The Hindu. Pakistani Umpire Asad Rauf was also involved in betting and sharing team information, the panel was told.
The panel asked the police whether Mr. Meiyappan was used by bookies to get inside information about his team. The police shared with the panel transcripts of conversations between Mr. Meiyappan and Vindoo Dara Singh in which the actor repeatedly demanded information, the sources said. The transcripts also show that this information was in turn passed on by the actor to bookies.
To a question whether CSK players were involved in betting or spot-fixing, the police told the panel that they had not got any evidence on this.
The panel is examining the charges against Mr. Meiyappan, Rajasthan Royals owner Raj Kundra as also the players booked by the Delhi police including S. Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila.
The panel was constituted after the Cricket Association of Bihar filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the BCCI probe committee, which had exonerated Mr. Meiyappan and Mr. Kundra for lack of evidence but handed out a ban to the cricketers.
The BCCI panel complained that its evidence gathering was hampered by the Mumbai police not sharing details of their investigation with it. But the police argued that the BCCI, as a private body, did not have the jurisdiction to summon them. They also feared that their evidence would be tampered with.
“This is a panel constituted by the apex court and therefore under the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure we are bound by the instructions of the court,” said a senior official.