Arresting Kundra under the Gambling Act may prove to be tricky because beyond his so-called confession, police have no evidence against him.
Neeraj Kumar told TV channels on Friday, "We don't have evidence against Raj Kundra, so can't arrest him". On Thursday he had said that Kundra was betting in the IPL matches, had lost money, and that his friend and business associate, Umesh Goenka, was a bookie.
Kumar refused to comment when contacted by TOI.
Meanwhile, Kundra released a statement on Friday saying he was innocent. "As a shareholder in RR, the investigating team of Delhi Police deemed it fit to question me too...I as a law abiding citizen volunteered to positively respond to the call. I satisfactorily replied to the queries raised by the police and they accordingly allowed me to leave after my questioning," it said.
Delhi Police officials say they are not probing Kundra for spot-fixing. "Since we are investigating spot-fixing incidents and his name has come up during the interrogation of Umesh Goenka, we will call him again for questioning," a source said, adding that cops had some leads in the spot-fixing probe, for which they would require to probe Kundra again.
Earlier on Friday, a senior Delhi Police officer also made a new claim that Shilpa Shetty had put a bet of Rs 1 lakh in one of the matches during IPL 6. Officials say Umesh Goenka made this claim in his statement. "We are verifying all these things," said an officer.
Asked why Delhi Police was not invoking the Gambling Act like its Mumbai counterparts who have charged Vindu Dara Singh and Gurunath Meiyappan under this law, the officer said they do not have supporting evidence. "We don't have supporting material evidence. I do not know the details of Mumbai Police's investigations, so I cannot comment. But we will go after someone only if we have material evidence to back our investigations," he said.
The police chief told media that Kundra was not the focus of their investigation and that he happened to figure in disclosure statements of some people. "That's why we thought it prudent to speak to him," he said. "We are yet to decide on Shilpa Shetty. We always keep our options open. Ours is not a short-term investigation which are going to close in the next two or three days. It's going to take time. Let us see how things unfold," he said.
Meanwhile, Rajasthan Royals management on Friday sought to distance itself from part-owner Kundra, saying that he had no involvement in the running of the franchise and would be suspended if found guilty. Reacting to reports over Kundra's involvement in betting, the Royals said he would also forfeit his shares in the franchise if he had breached any regulations.
"As a franchise, we have always been clear that the same rules apply to players, management or owners. As such, our actions will be consistent as in the case of the spot-fixing allegations with respect to our players," Rajasthan Royals chairman Ranjit Barthakur and CEO Raghu Iyer said in a statement.
"Mr Raj Kundra is a minority (11.7%) shareholder, and he has no involvement in the running of the franchise. We believe that Mr Kundra is a law abiding citizen and would not act contrary to law. If however, he is proven guilty, or has breached any regulations, he will be suspended, and he will also forfeit his shares. This is a strict governance procedure agreed to by all Rajasthan Royals shareholders, and it is consistent with our zero tolerance approach," the statement said.
"In the last few days, various members of the RR management have been assisting the Delhi Police in their investigation for a better appreciation and understanding of the matter. As we have stated before, we are cooperating with the authorities to ensure a thorough inquiry and will continue to share any such information that they may seek from us in the future. We are working hard as co-complainants to ensure that all information is made available to the authorities," said the statement.
In another development on Friday, it was decided that a key figure among bookies, Ramesh Vyas, would be brought to Delhi on Saturday from Mumbai. Officials say Vyas can give crucial leads about the underworld and hawala operators working for the D Company. The official alleged Vyas handled the operations of bookies for underworld in the south while Ashwani Aggarwal alias Tinku Mandi handled north Indian operations.
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