New Delhi, Feb 10: A Supreme Court-appointed committee has indicted Gurunath Meiyappan for betting and passing of team information during IPL matches that has come as a major embarrassment for his father-in-law and BCCI President N Srinivasan and could threaten Chennai Super Kings’ continuance.
The report of the committee, headed by former Punjab and Haryana Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal, however, said allegations of fixing against Meiyappan require further investigation and also left it to Supreme Court the issue of conflict of interest against Srinivasan, who heads the India Cements that owns CSK.
“The role of Gurunath Meiyappan in Chennai Super Kings (CSK) as the team official stands proved and the allegations of betting and passing of information against Meiyappan stand proved,” said the report of the committee presented to the Supreme Court today.
“However, the allegations of fixing require further investigation,” said the committee, also comprising Additional Solicitor General N Nagehswar Rao and Assam Cricket Association member Nilay Dutta.
The over 100-page report went into various issues like suspected involvement of six India-capped players in fixing, betting allegations against Rajasthan Royals owners and the need to bring discipline in players.
The IPL auction scheduled for February 12 and 13 will go ahead as scheduled without prejudice to the Supreme Court decision in betting and match-fixing case.
The committee’s report comes ahead two days ahead of the auction in Bangalore for the high-profile IPL tournament this year and raises questions on the status of the CSK as Meiyappan was the Team Principal of CSK, though Srinivasan claimed he was only a cricket enthusiast.
It also comes at a time when Srinivasan is set to take
control of the International Cricket Council by becoming Chairman of its Executive Board in July.
Under the Franchise Agreement and IPL’s anti-corruption code, CSK runs the risk of facing disciplinary action including ban for the acts of Meiyappan, who was its Team Principal, for bringing the game into disrepute.
The report immediately triggered a demand by Lalit Modi for annulling of CSK from IPL and a life ban for his detractor Srinivasan. Former BCCI President A C Muthaih said the report brings out the fact of clear conflict of interest regarding Srinivasan.
While Srinivasan refused to comment, BCCI Vice President Rajeev Shukla said one has to await the final judgement by the Supreme Court which has not stayed the IPL auction in Bangalore.
“The committee is of the view that the material on record clearly indicates that Meiyappan was the face of CSK and the team official of CSK,” the report said, while rejecting Srinivasan’s contention that he was merely a cricket enthusiast.
The committee, which was asked to give a report, was appointed by a bench of justices A K Patnaik and J S Kehar to probe the allegation of betting and spot-fixing against Meiyappan and owners of Rajasthan Royals.
The report also dealt with the allegations of betting and spot fixing against Rajashthan Royals’ Raj Kundra and said it need to be further investigated.
“Allegation of betting and spot fixing against Raj Kundra, team owner of Jaipur Cricket Private Limited, need to be further investigated,” the report added.
The court was hearing cross appeals filed by BCCI and Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB) challenging Bombay High Court’s order which had declared the BCCI’s probe panel in the scandal as illegal.
The three-member committee also stated that after
perusing the information provided by Delhi and Chennai police, FIR and chargesheet filed by Mumbai police, transcript of telephonic conversation, conclusions emerge that Meiyappan indulged in betting through Bindoo Dara Singh, who was in direct touch with the bookies and punters like Vikram Aggarwal.
“Bets were placed by Meiyappan inter alia were not only in favour of CSK but also against it. In betting parlance, betting for and against a team is called hedging bet,” report said, and added that “Meiyappan also bet in matches of teams other then CSK”.
“In so far as the roles of Meiyappan and Bindoo Dara Singh are concerned, our conclusions are based on the testimony of the police and chargesheet and are not meant in any manner to pronounce on the issue as to whether Meiyappan and Singh are guilty of the offences charged with, which issue is entirely under the domain of the criminal court.
The Committee said it based its conclusiond only on the objective facts gathered during the course of its probe and contents of the chargesheet and other documents produced by the investigating agency.
The committee also took note of the issue of conflict of interest raised against Srinivasan, saying it was serious but left it for the Supreme Court to consider it.
“While it is evident that the questions raised before us about conflict of interest are serious and may have large scale ramification on the functioning of cricket, we do not deem it proper to pronounce our opinion on this issue as it is not directly in our terms of reference.
“However, since several stake holders repeatedly expressed of this issue, we thought it proper to bring this issue to the attention of this court,” the report said. (PTI)
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