Harmeet Singh, a left arm spinner from Mumbai, had met the bookies willingly too, but police declined to say if the 20-year-old knew what the deal would entail.
Singh, who had represented India in its U-19 team in two World Cups, was instrumental in RR's wins last IPL season. Jain had met the player from RR around two months before the start of IPL 6 in April, around the same time he met Chavan and Chandila, but the latter's Dubai-based handlers decided that Harmeet was "too young" to carry out their bidding.
Quizzing likely
Police have not ruled out calling Harmeet for questioning since it is not clear why the youngster, whom Dilip Sardesai once compared with spin legend Bishen Bedi, agreed to meet Jain in the first place.
Jain, who has been into betting for the past 10 years, joined the fixing racket around a year ago when he met bookie Chandresh Patel. He allegedly made Rs 70-80 lakh in the Mohali match between Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab in which S Sreesanth deliberately gave away 13 runs, a senior police officer said.
Jain reportedly told police that he had decided to pay Sreesanth Rs 10 lakh out of the promised Rs 40 lakh though the fast bowler did not concede 14 runs as agreed earlier.
"Jeetu knew Sreesanth was an international player and to ensure that he continued in the racket, he decided to keep the cricketer in good humour," said an investigator.
The police said Jain, just like other accused bookies Mannan and Chandresh, had told them that they had to spend a lot on Chandila to keep him in on their side. "He was one cricketer who had to be taken out for shopping often," the cops said, quoting Jain.
Police said they had uncovered a new financial model used by bookies. "Jain worked on a commission basis. Hence, he always emerged with profits, irrespective of which team won the match. His earning for IPL matches was almost double that in an India-Pakistan or India-Australia ODI," said a top source. Jain had recently bought a property worth Rs 1.5 crore at Navrangpura in Ahmedabad. He was picked up in the city on Thursday after hiding out in six cities to evade arrest.
Cops seek CCTV footage from mall
The Delhi Police have issued notice to authorities of Sahara Mall in Gurgaon seeking CCTV footage and details of those working in the mall and the pubs on its premises. The mall is believed to have been the meeting place for bookies and arrested IPL players.
No evidence against Kundra?
The Special Cell has claimed that they had written to the Jaipur police commissioner to register a case against actor Shilpa Shetty along with Raj Kundra.
"We have attached the statement given to the magistrate by Kundra's aide which also mentions Shilpa's name," said a top officer adding they have not found any evidence to link Kundra to spot-fixing. They said there was no need to further question Kundra in this matter.
The special cell also claimed that just like the Bangladesh Premiere League, they tried to fix the Sri Lankan Premiere League by approaching the management of the Uva Next team earlier in this year. The "deal" though could not go through at the last moment.
0 comments:
Post a Comment