The Delhi Police on Tuesday invoked the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) on arrested bookies and players in the IPL spot-fixing scandal in order to probe the role of a crime syndicate led by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.
The MCOCA will strengthen the police’s case as several calls made by bookies to Dubai and Pakistan were intercepted by the sleuths linking IPL to the underworld.
Although the Delhi Police had indicated the role of the underworld in the betting syndicate, it has now officially named Dawood and his close aide Chhota Shakeel as its masterminds.
A senior officer said bookies were acting on behalf of the underworld and had contacted the players to fix matches. “Since the underworld controlled the fixing syndicate, the players are obviously part of the larger organised crime syndicate. It was necessary to invoke the MCOCA to probe the role of big players,” he said.
Meanwhile, BJP leader Arun Jaitley has ruled out his chances of becoming the BCCI president in September. “My priority is elsewhere. The question was can I spend time this year? I can’t spend that much time. I don’t want to visualise what happens in September. This is an election year and my priority is with my party,” he said.