If Delhi Police are to be believed, all the three arrested IPL players — S Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila — have confessed to their alleged involvement in spot-fixing.
After several hours of intense interrogation, Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai all-rounder Ankeet Chavan broke first and admitted to his role in the fixing scandal. “He accepted he made a mistake. He also accepted his role in spot-fixing,” said a police officer. Soon after, Sreesanth and Chandila too caved in. According to police, the Kerala pacer was “cooperating” in the probe, though Sreesanth maintained that he was framed by his distant cousin and former Kerala U-25 cricketer Jiju Janardhanan.
Chandila, whom many reckon was the conduit between the bookies and Chavan, provided them with vital information. He accepted that he had met bookies at the Country Club in Manesar on April 6, where they urged him to rope in two more players and offered him `20 lakh. Chandila agreed, though he couldn’t persuade those players to spot fix. He also reportedly told interrogators that the last two overs of last year’s IPL fixture between Delhi Daredevils and Rajasthan Royals were fixed. Police also added that some of them were lured into the racket with the help of escorts, while Jiju directly approached Sreesanth.
Of the arrested bookies, they have zeroed in on Mumbai-based Chandresh Patel as the prime conspirator since he has been in the profession for a long time. One among the bookies was former RR and Gujarat medium-pacer Amit Singh, and the BCCI duly suspended him. Meanwhile, Chandila’s lawyer claimed the RR management knew that the bookies had approached Chandila.