Delhi Police said Thursday it had seized Rs.5.5 lakh, the money allegedly given to Rajasthan Royals cricketer S. Sreesanth from spot fixing in IPL, from an event manager, Abhishek Shukla.
Shukla, a friend of Sreesanth who allegedly cleaned up the cricketer's hotel room soon after his arrest, was taken to Mumbai Wednesday from where the money was recovered.
"We recovered Rs.5.5 lakh from Shukla's Lokhandwala flat in Mumbai yesterday (Wednesday),” said a police officer. Shukla was granted bail by a court Thursday.
Shukla is a Mumbai based event manager.
Police sources claimed that Sreesanth spent around Rs.7.41 lakh within days in Jaipur and Mumbai before his arrest. They said the latest recovery completed the money trail linked to Sreesanth.
"Shukla wanted to become the manager or agent of Sreesanth. After the purchase, he took the rest of the money to his flat in Lokhandwala in a black bag," a senior police official said.
Altogether, Sreesanth, who had allegedly received Rs.10 lakh from Jiju Janardhan, a friend who is in police custody for the Indian Premier League (IPL) spot fixing scandal, the sources said.
Mumbai Police had earlier recovered Rs.70,000 from Sreesanth's hotel.
Delhi Police have arrested 26 people in connection with the IPL scandal. Of these, 18 have been sent to judicial custody, including Rajasthan Royals players Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan.