IPL spot-fixing: Crime plays with cricket

Fugitive and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim was officially named in the cricket match-fixing scandal, when the Delhi special cell filed a charge-sheet in the IPL spot-fixing racket. While the underworld involvement in the racket has been an open secret, the 600-page chargesheet is the first official document supporting the claim.

dna goes behind the scenes to find out how a billion-dollar syndicate puts cricketers, socialites and racketeers on the playing field.

In May, a month before results of the IPL final slipped out — the information had been dismissed as guesswork. However, as the tournament progressed, it became clearer that the match-fixing has its roots in a deeper crime operation.

When the racket went bust, several bookies and cricketers were arrested and many assumed that given the scrutiny racketeers would quietly bow out of the game. However, on the day of the IPL finals, Paresh Bhatia alias Appa and six other bookies were caught accepting bets in Goa.

Later, the crime branch placed Kalbadevi-based bookie Ramesh Vyas’s phones under surveillance and traced up to 30 phone-lines used to keep in touch with members of the underworld in Dubai and Pakistan.

Sobhan Mehta aka Sobhan Kalachowkie was traced to Goa and arrested too.

Meanwhile, for regular operators like Jitu Malad, Ajay Ganda, Junior Calcutta and Anil Jaising of Ulhasnagar, it was business as usual.

“There is an unwritten rule in the syndicate that a bookie always wins and a punter always loses. This is a racket which will not stop,” said a source from the betting syndicate.

Former Delhi police commissioner Neeraj Kumar, heading the Delhi special cell’s probe said, “They (underworld) virtually control the whole cricket betting syndicate. The ICC has a set of rules which if implemented, the menace can be controlled.” The special cell will file their official report soon.

Defense advocate, who is representing a number of bookies from Mumbai Rajesh Srivastava says the laws are not strong enough to remand the bookies for the alleged violations. “Betting comes under sections 4 and 5 of the Bombay Gambling Act. Under these sections the offences are bailable  and the accused is released on bail on the same day,” Srivastava said.

According to him, there is no other Act that can be used. “Just to get custody, cops slap section 467 of the IPC accusing the bookies of using forged documents to obtain SIM cards and apply sections from the IT act,” said Srivastava. These sections make the case weaker.

Bigwigs in the betting business
Dawood Ibrahim
Dawood Ibrahim, most wanted criminal by India is considered to be the pulling the main strings in the betting syndicate operated by the Indian, Pakistani and Dubai based bookies.

Chhota Shakeel
Dawood Ibrahim’s second-in-command, Shakeel is considered to be the man who controls the Indian bookies.

Sunil Abichandani
Originally from Mumbai but operates from Dubai, is associated with the Dawood gang heads over 60 per cent of the city based bookies. He also handles bookies in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Sunil Dubai was running a chit fund in which twelve top Indian bookies used to contribute Rs5lakh per month. Money was contributed in the chit fund by bookies Tinku Delhi, Devendra Kothari, Sonu Jalan, Prakash Chandnani alias Tiger from Dubai, Sanjay Jaipur and Shobhan.

Shobhan Mehta
Shobhan started out as a punter in late 80s and gradually became a bookie. His name had cropped up in the investigation of an illegal telephone exchange-cum-betting racket busted by the Mumbai Police in 2005.

Ramesh Vyas
Ramesh Vyas, who was arrested with two aides from his Kalbadevi hideout during a police raid on May 14. Vyas was the one who was channelizing telephone lines between Indian, Dubai and Pakistani bookies. He was termed as a “prize catch” by Mumbai Police. 92 mobiles phones, 18 SIM cards, one laptop and cash was seized, of which 30 mobile phones were being used by Ramesh Vyas to facilitate the betting in last IPL season.

Javed Chhotani
Javed Chhotani is a top Pakistani bookie, who has been actively connected with sports as a player and an administrator for a long time. According to the Mumbai police, Chhotani - known as Doctor in the betting circle - was a table tennis player in Pakistan and was associated with the table tennis association there.

Bookies invest in real estate
Betting on cricket matches is a multi-crore business and bookies involved in this business are investing their money into real-estate businesses said the Mumbai Crime Branch sources.

“Since this is money gained through illegal means, it becomes difficult to invest them,” said a crime branch officer, investigating the IPL betting case.

According to the officer former bookie Vinod Asrani alias Chembur has turned into a full-time builder developing properties in eastern suburbs of the city.

“Bookie Sonu Jalan has a partnership in a hotel situated in a mall in Andheri (W), while bookie Pappu Sawla is found to be involved in another construction business. Bookie Prakash Chandnani is suspected to have pumped his cash in Bollywood,” the officer said.

“Delhi based former bookie Anand Saxena, who had introduced actor Vindoo Dara Singh into betting business is also now into real-estate business,” said police inspector Nandkumar Gopale of the city crime branch.

Police have roped in the Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate to investigate the matter.

Q&A
Himanshu Roy,
Joint commissioner of police and chief of the Mumbai crime branch

Must decide whether to legalise betting or not
How deep-rooted is the  betting syndicate?
The whole racket is run by a close group of people ranging from the bookies, cricketers, umpires, administrators and socialites. Everything works on unwritten rules. They are all mutual beneficiaries, therefore, the racket is not easily exposed or unearthed.

What needs to be done to control this menace?
There is an urgent need to take a final call on whether betting should be legalised or not. If there is a decision not to legalise betting then, the laws need to be strengthened. In fact, there is no separate section or act which deals stringently with betting.

What are the difficulties with the police investigating such cases?
Our investigations have revealed that the syndicate is spread across the country and internationally. This makes it difficult for investigations because the whole operation functions only by word-of-mouth.

How involved is the underworld in the whole racket?
Hawala operators are used for monetary transactions and the underworld has always used this mode for the flow of money. Also, the fact that bookie Ramesh Vyas was in constant touch with bookies and cronies in Dubai and Pakistan is a clear indication that the underworld is involved. Even though, Mumbai police so far has not found any direct evidence of Dawood’s involvement, Delhi police has found it and even filed a chargesheet against him.