MUMBAI: Pressure mounted for the resignation of BCCI President N Srinivasan in the wake of alleged involvment of his son-in-law and CSK team owner Gurunath Meiyappan in betting on IPL matches even as questions were raised over the future of Chennai franchise.
The 35-year-old Gurunath was arrested here late Friday night for his alleged involvment in betting on IPL matches, raising questions over the future of the franchise.
“We have interrogated Gurunath based on information we have. We have found his involvement in the offence related to IPL betting case. We have placed him under arrest”, Joint Commissioner (Crime) of Mumbai Police Himanshu Roy told reporters.
The 35-year-old Gurunath was summoned by Mumbai Police for questioning after actor Vindoo Dara Singh implicated him in betting.
Gurunath flew here by a chartered aircraft from Madurai a little after missing the 5 pm deadline set by police for questioning.
Gurunath reached Mumbai late in the evening accompanied by noted Chennai lawyer P S Raman.
He was taken from the Mumbai airport to the Crime Branch headquarters and subjected to interrogation before being arrested.
Gurunath was arrested after nearly three hours of questioning that began at 9.30 pm, Roy said adding he will be produced before a metropolitan court on Saturday. The honcho of CSK, twice IPL champions, Gurunath, was in the eye of a huge storm after actor and TV reality show winner Vindoo admitted to having placed bets on his behalf. Vindoo, winner of reality show Bigg Boss season 3 and son of late wrestler-actor Dara Singh, was allegedly in “frequent touch” with Gurunath during the IPL matches and was claimed to have told Mumbai crime branch that the CSK owner had lost Rs 1 crore through betting.
Meanwhile, in attempts to cut losses, India Cements, which owns Chennai Superkings and is run by Srinivasan, sought to distance itself from Gurunath, saying he is neither the owner nor CEO or the Team Principal of CSK.
“Mr Gurunath is only one of the Members (Honorary) of the Management team of CSK. India Cements follows zero tolerance policy and if anyone is proved guilty, strict action will be taken immediately,” a statement issued by T S Raghupathy, Executive President of the company said.
However, woes for Srinivasan appeared to be mounting with demands for his resignation getting louder.
The NCP headed by Sharad Pawar, a former BCCI President, demanded that Srinivasan quit immediately “if he has any sense of morality and public accountability”.
Party spokesman D P Tripathi told a press conference that Srinivasan was under a shadow of doubt after his son-in-law had been summoned by Mumbai Police for questioning.
Sahara Group chief Subrata Roy, whose team Pune Warriors exited the IPL couple of days ago, also demanded Srinivasan’s resignation and his replacement by Sharad Pawar.
As the spot-fixing saga continued, a middle-aged man, who is associated with Bollywood and had alleged links with the underworld, was arrested at Hyderabad airport in connection with the IPL spot-fixing scandal minutes before he was to board an aircraft to flee to Dubai. Investigators claimed that Mohd Yahya was in touch with players of more than one team, including Rajasthan Royals, to spot-fix matches for bookies.
They also believe that his arrest early this morning may lead the investigators to the “doors of another IPL team” which is alleged to be involved in the betting racket.
Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar had said that at least three more players and one more IPL team is under the scanner.
Rattled by the scandal, IPL Chairman Rajiv Shukla and BCCI vice-President Arun Jaitley on Friday met Law Minister Kapil Sibal, demanding that a strong anti-fixing legislation be enacted. (PTI)