IPL spot-fixing case: Court discharges Sreesanth, Chandila and Chavan

IPL spot-fixing case: Court discharges Sreesanth, Chandila and Chavan: Today, the Patiala house court discharged the three accused Indian cricketers S. Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan in the IPL spot-fixing case from 2015. The trio was arrested in May 2013 after being suspended and banned by the BCCI.

Sreesanth and Chavan were handed life bans. They were later granted bail as there was lack of evidences against the cricketers. The Delhi court also dismissed charges of MOCOCA, conspiracy and cheating levied on the trio. Overall in the case the court has pronounced an arrest of 16 people while 20 people are discharged from the case. The court’s decision has come as a big relief to the three accused players.

Sreesanth was left in tears after he got released from the case. Sreesanth was quoted by NDTV saying: “No regrets, no complains against anybody, god-willing I will return to cricket”.

On May 16, 2013, the Special Cell of Delhi Police carried out raids after the spot-fixing scandal caught their eye. The special cell had named 42 accused in its initial charge-sheet filed in the Sessions Court. During the arguments on framing of charges, the police had referred to telephonic conversations among players and bookies to establish their match-fixing and betting charges.

The Police had also alleged that call detail records clearly reflect the linkage of the accused’s who were a part of the crime syndicate to generate money. The court had earlier declared underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his aide Chhota Shakeel as proclaimed offenders as they are evading arrest in the matter.

Recently, the Supreme Court of India appointed Lodha committee had suspended Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) from the IPL for two years while handling life ban on Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra, after being proved to have involvement in betting and spot-fixing. The two have been prevented from undertaking any sort of cricketing activities now on.