Police prepare to question BCCI chief’s son-in-law on betting links

Day After TOI Report, CSK Boss Meiyappan Remains Elusive

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: The crime branch of Mumbai police is preparing to question Gurunath Meiyappan, son-in-law of India’s cricket board chief and Chennai Super Kings owner N Srinivasan, about his frequent phone conversations with Vindu Dara Singh, who was arrested on Tuesday for his links with
a sprawling betting syndicate.
    A top police officer told this paper on Wednesday, “We have reached a stage where we cannot avoid an inquiry. We will either summon Meiyappan to Mumbai or send a team to Chennai to question him.”
    The Times of India on Wednesday broke the story of the Mumbai police investigating Meiyappan, who’s the ‘team principal’(equivalent of chief executive) of CSK. While it withheld Meiyappan’s name on the grounds that the probe was yet to establish any complicity with bookies or involvement in the fixing scandal, it spoke of him as a “close relative of a powerful IPL franchise owner who wields enormous clout in the world of cricket”; later in the story, it hinted at Chennai being his “home ground”. But within hours of the paper hitting the stands, both their names were out in the public domain and all over the electronic media.
    Despite relentless references through the day to Meiyappan and his links with Vindu, he refused to issue a statement. Attempts to reach him through CSK, his fatherin-law’s flagship company India Cements, and the Tamil Nadu cricket association proved futile. Nor was there any reaction from the BCCI chief, who has claimed right from the day Sreesanth and two other Rajasthan Royal players were arrested that it was a problem of a few rotten eggs.
    Police on Wednesday repeated what it had told the TOI the day before: that investigations have revealed a series of back-to-back conversations where Vindu would call bookie Ramesh Vyas, who has since been arrested, after talking to Meiyappan. Even if no IPL team owner or CEO had knowledge of or involvement in spot/match fixing, the hint of any link to bookies could have very serious consequences. A team owner/CEO is privy to information that bookies would pay big bucks for.
Royals cruise to 4-wkt win over Hyderabad P utting the spot-fixing scam behind them, Rajasthan Royals beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by four wickets in the IPL eliminator on Wednesday. After restricting Hyderabad to 132/7, Rajasthan, riding a 29-ball 54 by Australian import Brad Hodge, romped home with four balls to spare. The Royals will take on Mumbai Indians in the 2nd qualifier on Friday. P 23 D COMPANY TENTACLES & THE BOOKIE MAFIA
Cops have pieced together the web of D Company ops in the betting-fixing mafia on basis of intercepts of Tiger Memon’s calls
Dawood controls ops through men in London (who operate betting website) & Dubai (Tiger Memon & Arif Anees, who could be Dawood’s brother Anees)
Memon & Anees in direct touch with
Indian master bookie — man in Mumbai who goes by alias of Feroz
Spot-fixing plotted by Feroz. Bets would be taken for 1st session of innings, between 7th & 10th overs, and before strategic timeouts
    Often, more than 1 bowler would be asked to concede 14-plus runs. This way, even a match could be fixed since if that many runs are conceded chances of a team winning are slim
    Money sent to Karachi through hawala by Mumbai-based operator called Salman. Money monitored personally by Dawood