City crime branch was trying to spot fixing too

S Ahmed Ali TNN

May 17, 2013
Mumbai: The Delhi police’s special cell arrested eight persons, including Rajasthan Royals cricketers S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan from Mumbai in a hush-hush operation on Thursday even as the Mumbai crime branch was in the initial stages of probing the spot-fixing racket. The Mumbai crime branch had, in fact, raided an international illegal telephone exchange-cum-betting racket on Tuesday.
    Sources said the Delhi police learned that the crime branch had cracked the telephone exchange-cum-bookie racket and arrested three key persons, including former top bookie Shoban Mehta alias Kalachowkie’s associate, Ramesh Bajranglal Vyas, who were mediators between Indian and Pakistani bookies. The city police had, during investigations, got hold of a huge list of bookies, including Tikoo, Lokesh and Jupiter, who had links with the players.
    The sources said the Intelligence Bureau (IB) had forwarded a list of people on conference calls with bookies in Pakistan and the Mumbai and Delhi police were keeping tabs on their phones. The Mumbai sleuths on Tuesday arrested three bookies and seized 92 mobile phones, with 32 international SIM cards and other material.
    The Delhi police’s cell was waiting for another Rajasthan Royals match to catch the players red-handed, but instead flew down here on Wednesday and arrested eight of them.
    The ‘war’ between the Mumbai and Delhi police goes back to last year, when a goof-up between the two helped Pakistani
terrorists Waqqas and Tabrez, who had holed up in a rented place in Byculla, slip away.
    “We came across bookies Jupiter, Lokesh and Tikkoo, who are emerging as common names in the Mumbai and Delhi police investigations,’’ said Nandkumar Gopale, a senior inspector of the property cell here.
    Gopale and his team had last May arrested Malad bookies Sonu Jalan and Devendra Kothari, who said they had paid Rs 10 crore to Sri Lankan players for match-fixing, but the case was not pursued due to “lack of jurisdiction”. The crime branch had also arrested a Chhota Shakeel aide for hawala transactions. The police had held film producer Prakash Chandani and issued a lookout notice against NRI Sunil Abhichandani alias Sunil Dubai too.
    Sources said the nearly Rs 1,500-crore betting and matchfixing racket involves bookies, team managers, players, hawala operators and underworld gangs, and matches are often fixed at meetings abroad. A bookie from Pydhonie said if the cops really want to unearth the racket, they should investigate the frequent foreign trips of bookies. “There is a Delhi-Dubai link. For the past few years, Delhi is emerging as a major player in gambling, as Mumbai’s bookies have retired or shifted to the construction business.
UNDERHAND DELIVERY
The arrests of three cricketers by Delhi police for spot-fixing comes close on the heels of arrests of three bookmakers by Mumbai police. TOI paints brief sketches of people accused at different times of being connected with cricket bookmaking
Shobhan Mehta alias Kalachowkie | A businessman from Kalachowkie in central Mumbai, his name came up in the 2000 match-fixing scandal involving South African cricketer Hansie Cronje. A native of Palanpur in Gujarat, he dropped out of college in 1982 while studying commerce. It is said he ran errands for a diamond trader relative before becoming a diamond merchant himself Prakash alias Pappu Savla | The alleged matka king operated as a bookmaker for a while, according to police officers. He was arrested for abetting the murder of a Sena corporator but discharged in the case. An ailing Savla now operates in the construction business Ramesh Vyas | He was arrested on Tuesday by Mumbai police for allegedly running an international telephone exchange-cum-cricket betting racket. The owner of a ‘communications centre’, he had links with Shobhan Mehta, police officers said. Vyas also earned money by playing the conduit between Indian and Pakistani bookies
Sonu Jalan & Devendra Kothari | Alleged bookmakers, they were arrested by Mumbai crime branch last year. While being interrogated about a global betting syndicate, they reportedly spoke of a payment of Rs 1 crore to an IPS officer. The claim led the ACB to get involved in the probe. They are currently said to live in Goa BJP DEMANDS BAN ON T20
    The Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded that the government ban T20 cricket since it involves “less of the game” and “more of controversies like betting and match-fixing”. The demand follows the arrest of three Indian cricketers (including S Sreesanth) for spot-fixing, and the kidnap, and later murder, of a teenager by his cousin to recover betting losses. Party spokesperson Madhav Bhandari said, “A few people introduced a shorter form of cricket for their personal interest. We have opposed the format from the beginning. Recent incidents show it is being used to make quick money. Since there are several controversies around it, the government should discourage the controversial format and move a proposal to ban it.” In a veiled attack on politicians linked with the format, Bhandari said, “Cricket is a good game, but the involvement of sharks (big politicians) has given the sport a bad name.”
— Sanjeev Shivadekar