A recent IPL match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore may also come under the scanner of Delhi Police for “match-fixing” after the interrogation of Rajasthan Royal`s player Ajit Chandila and bookies who have been arrested on charges of spot-fixing, police sources said on Tuesday.
However, Delhi Police said as such they have no evidence to corroborate the claims of Chandila and others made during questioning in the IPL spot-fixing scandal or to come to a conclusion that the match was fixed. The match in question is the one played between the two teams in Ranchi on May 12 which KKR won by four wickets.
Police sources came out with these details a day after the arrest of Bhupender Nagar, a security manager of two night clubs in Delhi. They said Nagar was in touch with Chandila for the past seven-eight months as the player was a regular in the night club located in a prominent hotel in Nehru Place. Nagar`s friend Vicky, also a bouncer in a night club of a prominent hotel in New Delhi, wanted to get in touch with some cricketers in the first week of May.
Within two days, Nagar took Chandila, who came from Bangalore, to a night club in Vasant Kunj where Vicky met him. Later, Nagar, Vicky and two bookies went to Jaipur to meet Chandila to get some information on a particular match. “Chandila was asked by the bookies about who will win the match between KKR and RCB on May 12.
The spinner told the bookies that KKR will win and actually KKR won the match,” a senior police official said. The bookies had agreed to pay Rs 30 lakh to Chandila but refused to pay him later as they had claimed to have incurred loss due to a low-scoring match. RCB batted first and scored 115 and chasing the target, KKR made the winning run in the 20th over. “Chandila was paid an advance of Rs two lakh.
As the bookies later refused to pay the full amount, hectic negotiations followed. Later the bookies relented and gave Rs five lakh more to Vicky for paying Chandila. “Instead of paying Chandila, Vicky and Nagar pocketed the money. Rs 2.85 lakh was kept by Vicky while Nagar kept the rest,” the official said.
“This sequence matched with our interrogation of Chandila and Nagar. We also have telephone interception to this effect,” he said. However, the official was quick to add that he “cannot say the match was fixed” as there was “no evidence” to suggest so. Asked about Chandila`s version, the official said the spinner told them that he felt that there was such a possibility and so told bookies that KKR will win.
Queried why a bookie would pay such a huge amount for a player`s guesswork, he said, “I do not believe him (Chandila). But these are the facts what we have. We do not have evidence now to say that this particular match was fixed.” Meanwhile Abhishek Shukla, a friend of Sreesanth who allegedly cleaned up the cricketer`s hotel room soon after his arrest, was questioned by police. “He is an event manager.
We are questioning him. We want to know how Sreesanth spend the money. Shukla`s PAN number was given for Sreesanth`s transactions. He knows Sreesanth for five-six years,” the official said.