Bail for Guru, tough law for Sree - Delhi police name Dawood as prime accused in spot-fixing case

Bail for Guru, tough law for Sree - Delhi police name Dawood as prime accused in spot-fixing case

IMRAN AHMED SIDDIQUI

June 4: Delhi police today clamped on the three tainted Rajasthan Royals cricketers a stringent Maharashtra law that can deny them bail for up to a year, while fellow accused Gurunath Meiyappan and Vindoo Dara Singh walked free from jail in Maharashtra's capital. The Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act 1999 could be invoked against the cricketers and 23 bookies because the Delhi cops made mafia don Dawood Ibrahim and aide Chhota Shakeel the main accused in the spot-fixing and betting case. If convicted under this act — aimed at tackling crime syndicates and terrorists — Santhakumaran Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and the newly married Ankeet Chavan can be locked away for life and have their properties attached. Only once before had Delhi police used this anti-mafia act, a state law of Maharashtra. They had slapped it on extradited gangster and terror accused Abu Salem in 2006 in connection with an extortion racket in the capital. In Dawood's former city, the son-in-law of the Indian cricket chief and Dara Singh's son, booked under ordinary crime laws, received bail along with six bookies a day after a court had remanded them in judicial custody till June 14. Sreesanth's counsel Rebecca John said the invocation of the Maharashtra act against the cricketers showed the cops' desperation and the "vindictive and vicious rivalry between Delhi police and their counterparts in Mumbai". But a senior Delhi police officer defended the use of the mafia-buster law. "We have evidence that Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel were the masterminds behind the entire fixing syndicate," he claimed. "All the accused were facilitating the illegal acts of Dawood and Shakeel." He argued that the three cricketers may not have had direct contact with the mafia but were in touch with bookies, who had underworld links. Besides, the officer added, the spot-fixing and betting case involved the use of "force, threat and coercion" --- at least by bookies against players. "One of the arrested bookies had threatened to teach a particular player a lesson if he ever came to Mumbai," he said. "Apart from that, the accused have made a lot of money. It is a fit case to invoke the stringent law." Defence lawyers involved in the case criticised the Delhi police move. "Some bookies who were accused of links with (Dawood's) D-Company have been given bail in Mumbai today and the police here have invoked the MCOCA. How can players be accused of being part of an organised crime syndicate?" said D.P. Singh, counsel for bookie Chandresh Patel. Delhi chief metropolitan magistrate Lokesh Kumar Sharma today extended the judicial custody of Sreesanth and 22 others after the police informed him about the clamping of the stringent Maharashtra law. Three of the 26 accused are not in Delhi jails. Chavan and Sreesanth's friend Abhishek Shukla, accused of removing the cricketer's belongings from his hotel room after his arrest, are out on bail. Co-accused Ashwani Aggarwal has been sent to Mumbai on a production warrant issued by a court there. Following today's development, additional sessions judge Sanjeev Jain rather than a magistrate will hear any future bail applications by the accused. Sreesanth, Chandila and Chavan had earlier been booked for cheating, criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust, the last of which can bring a life term. An officer claimed that many of the arrested bookies worked directly under instructions from D-Company. "We have enough evidence and telephone intercepts to prove in the court that the bookies had made use of the underworld network to fix IPL matches. They made calls to Dubai and Pakistani locations such as Karachi to get in touch with the underworld to fix and alter betting rates," the officer said. Parity plea In Mumbai, the counsel for Gurunath and Vindoo had argued that the police case only linked their clients to betting --- there was no evidence of their involvement in spot-fixing. Lawyers Aabad Ponda and Satish Mane-Shinde also argued that since two bookies arrested in the case under the same sections had been granted bail, all remaining accused should be granted parity. The court accepted the parity argument. Those released on bail were told by the court not to travel outside the country and to report to the crime branch every alternate day. The accused, who had to sign Rs 25,000 bail bonds, were freed from the Arthur Road jail in the evening. Gurunath's counsel Ponda and Vindoo's lawyer Mane-Shinde had moved the bail applications yesterday. They had cited a Supreme Court judgment that said that unless an offence carried the life term, the accused could be granted bail if they were cooperating with the police. Mane-Shinde had earlier contended that Vindoo and Gurunath were victims of a power tussle in the Board of Control for Cricket in India. "The Gambling Act sections are bailable. The Gambling Act cannot be misused like this. The police machinery was used to arrest these people by those who wanted to grab power in the BCCI. It was a concerted effort of a large group and not one individual," he said after today's ruling. Vindoo's wife Dina Umarova said: "I know he is innocent. He is a big-hearted, good human being. If I know someone, it does not mean I am connected to them or that I fix (spots or matches). They both (Gurunath and Vindoo) confessed they were betting, but there is no fixing. Betting on cricket is a common thing, but it is a bailable offence." http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130605/jsp/frontpage/story_16973172.jsp#.Ua9DntKBlA0