NEW DELHI, May 28: Arrested cricketers S Sreesanth and Ajit Chandila besides two bookies were today remanded in judicial custody till June 4 by a Delhi court which rejected the investigators’ plea for two more days of custodial interrogation of the Indian pacer in connection with the IPL spot-fixing scandal case.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Lokesh Kumar Sharma turned down the plea of Special Cell of Delhi Police for the custody of Sreesanth saying he cannot be held liable for what has happened at his back.
“Admittedly, Sreesanth cannot be held liable for instances at his back. I am of the considered opinion that it would amount to injustice to the accused,” the court said on the police argument that immediately after his arrest, his hotel room was cleaned up and some articles were removed.
The court also pulled up the investigators for not showing any fresh ground to take the custody of Sreesanth, saying as to why he should be handed to “your hospitality” for two days.
“How will you (investigators) establish that the removed articles belong to Sreesanth as anyone can plant to falsely implicate him,” the court said. It also sent Chandila and two bookies Ashwani Aggarwal and Chandresh Patel to judicial custody after the police said they were no more required for custodial interrogation.
The court dismissed the bail plea of Rajasthan Royals player Ankeet Chavan, while the bail of Sreesanth will be heard on June 4.
During the course of arguments, Senior Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan informed the court that interception of various calls suggested that several big names may be involved in the episode as calls were made to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.
The police said there are some missing links and they are working on it.
“We are missing the link of the whole episode which will be proved very soon,” the prosecutor said, adding, “Some big names are also involved which I cannot disclose at this stage and they were in regular contact with D company.” (AGENCIES)
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