Police seize Rs. 5.5 lakh allegedly paid to Sreesanth by bookies

Mangalore Today/NDTV

New Delhi, May 30: The Delhi Police claim to have recovered Rs. 5.5 lakh that they allege was paid to cricketer S Sreesanth by bookies for spot-fixing in Indian Premier League matches.

The police said the money was seized from Mumbai with the help of Abhishek Shukla, an event manager and Sreesanth’s friend, who was arrested in Delhi on Wednesday morning.

 

Shukla was reportedly taken to Mumbai later in the afternoon yesterday to help trace and recover the money. The event manager will be produced in a Delhi court today.

The police allege that Shukla had removed what they call "incriminating evidence." Police sources say they intercepted a call between Shukla and arrested bookie Jiju Janardhan. In that call Jiju asked Shukla to remove things from the hotel room in Mumbai, where he and Sreesanth had stayed before their arrest on May 16 .

The Mumbai Police had raided the hotel on the night of May 17 and had recovered a laptop, mobile phones, iPads and Rs. 72,000 in cash from the two rooms where Sreesanth and Jiju stayed. Diaries, written in English and Malayalam, were also recovered from the cricketer’s room; cops said several of the entries were made by Sreesanth himself.

Delhi Police sources say Jiju was allegedly dealing with other bookies on Sreesanth’s behalf. Both Sreesanth and Jiju are in judicial custody and are lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail.

The Delhi Police has so far arrested 26 people in the spot-fixing scam. Key among them are Sreesanth and two of his former Rajasthan Royals teammates - Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan. The police have not ruled out more arrests.

Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar has also hinted at the possible involvement of another IPL team in the scam.