ICC anti-graft body official "warned" Meiyappan over bookie links

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Mumbai, May 31, 2013 (PTI): An ICC official had "warned" CSK team owner Gurunath Meiyappan to be "careful" about his association with bookies weeks before he was arrested in connection with the IPL betting scandal, police said today.

An offcial of the anti-corruption unit of the highest governing body of international cricket had verbally asked Meiyappan, son-in-law of BCCI president N Srinivasan, to steer clear of the bookies after the activities of the Chennai franchise honcho came to their notice, a top crime branch officer involved in the investigation said.

"Be careful, I have been warned," Meiyappan had told actor Vindoo Randhawa who is also under arrest in the case. This is part of Meiyappan’s statement to the crime branch, the source said, adding Vindoo has corroborated it.

The source declined to reveal the name of the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) official and said they were yet to corroborate it with the ICC.

"We are yet to corroborate Meiyappan’s statement with ICC and we at the moment don’t even know if any person by that name (given by Meiyappan) exists," he said. The ACSU keeps players, team members and umpires under surveillance in order to check malpractices in the game.