Nilay Dutta, one of the three members of the Mudgal Committee, has slammed the Chennai police for its role in investigating the IPL betting and fixing scandal, going so far as to say “there seems to be a deliberate intention to cover up the match fixing deal allegedly arrived at on 27.04.2013.”
The statement comes in response to the police’s refusal to hand over its interrogation report of Utham Jain aka Kitty, who is a bookie. According to Dutta's report, the Superintendent of the Q Branch had stated that there was allegations of a match fixing deal concluded on the 27 April 2013 that implicated Gurunath Meiyappan, hotelier Vikram Agarwal and an “important Indian player.”
However after assuring the committee the file would be handed over and the investigating officer presented, it was radio silence from Q branch. They simply stopped communicating with the committee. That led senior advocate Nilay Dutta goes on to point out that no investigation was ever carried out by the Chennai Police and “the officers who knew the contents of Kitty’s statement “under Section 161 of the Cr. P.C, were immediately transferred out from their respective positions.
"Curiously, the interrogation report of Kitty by the CBCID Branch of Chennai police do not reveal anything about any deal on 27.04.2013," Dutta said. He then goes on to say this is a “matter of grave signficance” and he suggests the Supreme Court direct an investigation to find out what really happened. However, today an India Today appears to shed more light on why the report was never sent. The story is based on a page allegedly from the Kitty interrogation report prepared by G Sampath Kumar (SP, Railways, Trichi) and mentions India captain MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina.
"Kitty [the bookie’s alias] spoke of his knowledge about Vikram Agarwal,Gurunath Meiyappan and cricket players MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and a few others, and another person in Rajasthan (suspected to be one of Jaipur brothers) in match-fixing," the report says. Dhoni would certainly qualify to be an important Indian player, as would Suresh Raina, at least in limited-overs games and the IPL in particular.
The Mudgal Committee’s final report also mentions that six India players have been accused of collaborating with bookies. While the committee does does not name the players, saying at this stage the allegations are only allegations, it recommends all the allegations be investigated.
The names have also been submitted to the Supreme Court in a sealed envelope. It now seems the report contained some potentially explosive information, which is perhaps why it was not shared with the Mudgal Committee. Dhoni certainly deserves the presumption of innocence but given how it appears he misled the Mudgal Committee on Meiyappan's role with CSK, it is clear there is something rotten in the state of Indian cricket.
That's why it is time Dhoni made a clear and unambiguous statement to the public. It was something he should have done when the scandal first broke, but he chose instead to stay silent. It is now a case of better late than never. The Indian cricket fans who have showered him with their devotion deserve that much.
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Till a few months back, most cricket lovers were familiar with this popular hoarding in the cricket stadiums; ‘If Cricket is a Religion, Sachin is God’. Well, what a coincidence it has been that with the departure of our god from the cricketing field, more and more number of controversies are arising from the circuit of Indian cricket, especially involving the IPL. For all the Indian cricket lovers, it is indeed a matter of great grief.
And today, as we see that a report prepared by G Sampath Kumar (SP, Railways, Trichi), mentioning the names of MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina in connection with bookies and match-fixing, millions of Indian cricket lovers are feeling terribly betrayed. There have always been fears about IPL being the soft target for the bookies but none would have anticipated that it will hit Indian cricket so hard. Last year, Sreesanth & Co had already brought a lot of shame to Indian cricket and now with these names coming up, wonder where will it end up to! Well, we can just expect that the whole lot behind this ghastly fiasco, staring from the top IPL/cricketing administrators to the players to those from the glamour and other circuits, must be given stringent punishment for playing with the emotions of billions.
But the biggest question is who will tie the bell on the cat's neck? - Debayan Das, Kolkata
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