IPS officer's charges on IPL probe baseless, says Tamil Nadu

Updated - November 16, 2021 08:03 pm IST - New Delhi

Tamil Nadu government on Saturday moved the Supreme Court describing as false and baseless the allegations made by police officer Sampath Kumar relating to the IPL probe on betting and spot fixing, and said he was suspended on charges of extortion and demanding bribe from bookies.

Tamil Nadu government on Saturday moved the Supreme Court describing as false and baseless the allegations made by police officer Sampath Kumar relating to the IPL probe on betting and spot fixing, and said he was suspended on charges of extortion and demanding bribe from bookies.

The Tamil Nadu government on Saturday moved the Supreme Court describing as false and baseless the allegations made by police officer Sampath Kumar relating to the IPL probe on betting and spot fixing, and said he was suspended on charges of extortion and demanding bribe from bookies.

In its application seeking to implead itself in the ongoing BCCI case, it said Mr. Sampath Kumar had made scathing allegations against the Tamil Nadu Police without impleading the State of Tamil Nadu. It said the Intervener had not cited either CBCID or Tamil Nadu Government as respondent to misguide the Supreme Court. It said the attempt of the intervener was only to quash/stay the suspension order dated February 27 without following the procedure of first approaching the Central Administrative Tribunal.

A Bench of Justices A.K. Patnaik and Ibrahim Kalifulla had already reserved orders on the plea of Cricket Association of Bihar for a further probe by an independent panel, preferably by Justice Mudgal panel itself.

In his application Mr. Sampath Kumar had prayed for a SIT probe into the involvement of the top BCCI management and some cricket players in the betting and spot fixing scam in the IPL-6 matches. He said he was part of the investigation conducted earlier by the CBCID, Chennai and later shunted from the probe and suspended. He alleged that the Chennai Police had indulged in a cover up operation and had not conducted the probe in a free and fair manner.

He said he was the first person who was at the root of the investigation into the match fixing scandal and to bring forward new facts in relation to the betting scandal giving a totally new dimension to the whole scam and the involvement of top people in the management of cricket in India as well as the involvement of certain players. He said “however, due to the hectic lobbying and clout enjoyed by the people behind the scam, the applicant has been proceeded against in order to let the influential people off the hook.”

Refuting the charges the State said “during the course of investigation six bookies were arrested on the date of registration of this case and based on the confession of the accused efforts were made to arrest other bookies. In view of the role of intervener/applicant in extracting a bribe amount from the accused {bookies} and also for other delinquencies he was suspended by the Government. In order to escape from the clutches of law the intervener/applicant has deposed falsely before the probe committee headed by Justice Mudgal.”

The Tamil Nadu Police denied that Mr. Sampath Kumar was a member of the investigation team. No interrogation of Kitty @ Utham C.Jain, was conducted at Q Branch and no interrogation report was therefore available, it said. Various allegations made by intervener / applicant before the probe committee against CBCID was absolutely false, factually incorrect and baseless. Hence, the question of producing such report before the probe committee did not arise.

It said the case of extortion and bribery from the accused in IPL betting was being carried out in a fair and unbiased manner. If the prayers in the Intervening Application filed by the intervener / applicant were to be considered TN government was a necessary and proper party. It said “any order to be passed pertaining to these cases will vitally affect the interest of the State of Tamil Nadu and the CBCID” and sought permission to implead in the main case, which seeks removal of BCCI president N. Srinivasan based on the findings of Justice Mudgal committee report.

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