The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the police about the existence of a crime syndicate for committing the offence of spot-fixing in the Indian Premier League-6 cricket matches in 2013 and sought to know if the accused, discharged by a trial court, were part of that syndicate.
The police had to establish with evidence that the accused persons belonged to a crime syndicate run by the underworld people, said the Bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul, adding that prime facie evidence making out the offence was required for framing of charges in the case.
The court was hearing the appeal filed by the Delhi Police against the Sessions Court’s order of July 25 this year discharging cricketers S. Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan and 33 others in the high-profile IPL-6 spot-fixing case.
The court asked probing questions about the whereabouts of the underworld people who the police claimed were running the syndicate.
It asked the Delhi Police counsel, Kirtiman Singh, to establish with evidence that the accused belonged to the crime syndicate.
After the counsel submitted that the police authorities had obtained voice samples by intercepting telephone calls, the court posted the matter for further hearing on February 11.
The appeal moved by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police has contended that the Sessions Court’s order giving a clean chit to the accused was unsustainable, as it had “erroneously interpreted” the law pertaining to the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), under which the case was registered.
The trial court had held at the stage of framing of charges that the police had failed to gather necessary ingredients to establish a prima facie case under MCOCA against the cricketers and others. All the accused were earlier released on bail.
