Guru-Vindu duet didn’t always score

‘Meiyappan passed on privileged info, betted’

Mateen Hafeez, S Ahmed Ali & Vijay V Singh TNN

Mumbai: Chennai Super Kings principal Gurunath Meiyappan passed on privileged information on team strategy, batting order, the nature of the pitch, as well as the morale of his players to Vindu Dara Singh, crime branch officials said after his interrogation. He also allegedly passed on information about the players’ injuries, the induction of new players and lastminute changes to the team.
    In intercepted calls, Meiyappan was heard confidently placing bets after making predictions about the winning teams, a police source said. Police will now scrutinize some of the CSK matches where Meiyappan allegedly predicted the outcome correctly. He said Meiyappan placed bets on other teams also.
    “There is a strong possibility of match-fixing in the case, which needs to be investigated through the interrogation of Meiyappan,” Joint Commissioner of Police (crime) Himanshu Roy. He said investigators were focusing on the calls between Vindu and Meiyappan during the strategic time out sessions of IPL matches. “We need to verify if some bets were placed during this time too.”
    The charge, if proved, could be damning for Meiyappan. He had access to vital information on CSK that others did not have. “There is a huge difference between the information possessed by a small punter and a team owner,” said Roy. Vindu passed on the information provided by Meiyappan to his two bookie friends—Sanjay and Pawan Jaipur—who are now holed up in Dubai. Meiyappan said he had known Vindu for the past few years but they became close only two years ago during an IPL party held at a fivestar hotel; he started betting only this year. A source said Meiyappan and Vindu have admitted to their involvement in betting during the interrogation. While Vindu has told the police that Meiyappan gave the information on his own, the latter said Vindu insisted on it.
    Police have found several financial transactions between Meiyappan, Vindu and the bookies. Meiyappan lost around Rs1 crore in the ongoing IPL matches. He had initially lost Rs 25 lakh but made profits in two other matches. He again lost while betting on the match between the CSKand the Mumbai Indians played on May 5. “After taking heavy losses, Meiyappan decided to limited his bets to not more than Rs5-20 lakh,”' said a police officer.
    JCP Roy said Vindu and the bookies also hosted Pakistani empire Asad Rauf whenever he came to Mumbai. Meiyappan corroborate what Vindu had earlier told them, police said.
    Police, however,said there was nothing to indicate, as of now, that Meiyappan’s father-inlaw and BCCI chief N Srinivasan knew about his betting activities.

IN SPOTLIGHT: Vindu Dara Singh’s second wife Dina Umarova outside a police station in Mumbai