Match-fixing has reared its ugly head once again as the Indian Premier League (IPL) finds itself in the news for all the wrong reasons. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked three suspected punters in connection with the alleged fixing of IPL games. One punter was arrested from Delhi while the other two were nabbed from Hyderabad. According to a report in the PTI, the arrested punters fixed the games ‘based on inputs’ received from Pakistan.
The CBI has listed one Dileep Kumar, based in Delhi, and Gurram Vasu and Gurram Satish from Hyderabad in its FIR as accused. According to the officials, the network is operational since 2013. The latest revelation has led to a country-wide probe from the central agency. The accused persons ran a pan-India network to induce public to put their money into IPL betting. The CBI has now launched an investigation against certain private individuals and “unknown public servants” based in Delhi, Jodhpur, Jaipur and Hyderabad.
The report further stated that the accused persons committed fraud even while opening their bank accounts. They have opened their bank accounts using fake identities as the FIR stated: “These bank accounts have been opened by submitting forged details such as multiple dates of birth and without due diligence done by the bank officials. A part of the money received from the general public in India on account of such betting activities is also being shared with their associates based in foreign countries using hawala transactions.”
According to the CBI, the accused persons were in touch with one Pakistani national named Waqas Malik. The Pakistani citizen’s number has already been obtained during initial investigation. The agency has alleged there were transactions worth around ₹10 crore in the account of the accused.
Not the first time:
This is not the first time that IPL has been rocked by match-fixing scandal. The richest and biggest cricket tournament’s image was tarnished for a similar incident way back in 2013. At that time, the Delhi Police had arrested three cricketers S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, on the charges of alleged spot-fixing. All the players were playing for Rajasthan Royals at that time. In a separate case, Mumbai Police had arrested Chennai Super Kings Team Principal Gurunath Meiyappan for alleged betting. A couple of years later, Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were suspended for two years from IPL for corruption.