New Delhi, May 23: The noose around tainted India pacer Sreesanth was tightened on Wednesday with documents, which CNN-IBN has access to, showing that he owns a company called S36 Sports & Entertainment Pvt Ltd that ran ’betting houses’.
Sreesanth, who is currently under police custody on charges of spot-fixing in the IPL and is being interrogated, owns 74 percent stake in the company while his former coach P Sivakumar holds the remaining 26 percent. The company is registered in Karnataka.
According to the documents, objectives to be pursued by the company in India and/or abroad include running ’betting houses’, gyms and coaching centres.
The documents also suggest that the company was incorporated on September 29, 2010, in Bangalore.
Sivakumar, however, defended the formation of the company, saying it was Sreesanth’s ’post-retirement’ plan. "It is a normal practice to list as many objective when a company is registered. The company was formed for Sreesanth’s post-retirement life. If Sreesanth settles abroad, he can run a betting house. There are many countries where betting is allowed. We have not committed any illegality."
Sivakumar resigned as director of the company on August 20, 2012.