N Srinivasan requests Supreme Court to allow him to resume office

Maintaining that the Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee has given him a clean chit in the IPL betting and spot-fixing scandal, N Srinivasan on Friday moved the Supreme Court seeking his reinstatement as president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

"I believe the conclusion of the report is that I was not involved in any betting or match-fixing activity nor did I scuttle any investigations. This clearly vindicates my stand. All the allegations made against me by the petitioner and other persons inimical to me were completely false, baseless and motivated out of malice," Srinivasan said in an affidavit filed before the apex court.

Srinivasan is is also being backed by the BCCI, which told the top court through a separate affidavit that action against Individual No. 3 (not named in the report made public) had been warned for violating the players' code of conduct. This, the board said, was in contradiction to the report which said Srinivasan and other BCCI officials did not take any action against the player.

In his affidavit, Srinivasan also said that he had, in March this year, volunteered to step aside till the probe was completed. "There is absolutely no reason for me to continue to stay away from my elected position in the BCCI. I have already lost close to a whole year of my elected term on the basis of wholly false and motivated charges," Srinivasan said.

According to the BCCI affidavit filed by secretary Sanjay Patel, the player in question was cautioned during the tour of Sri Lanka in 2010, and not the IPL. The incident, he said, was a "minor" one and that the player was only "orally" reprimanded by the board.

"On November 18, the BCCI discussed the report and Orissa Cricket Association representative Ranjib Biswal mentioned that the incident referred to by the panel took place when he was the manager of the Indian cricket team in 2010. The incident was a minor one and player was orally reprimanded and Shashank Manohar, the BCCI president at that time, was satisfied with the explanation given by the player," the affidavit said.

In another affidavit, India Cements Ltd, which owns the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), objected to the report which identified Srinivasan's son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan, as a team official. For the record, Srinivasan is the vice-chairman and managing director of India Cements. And the committee has said that Gurunath was involved in betting.

Interestingly, the affidavit says that Meiyappan is neither a shareholder nor a director or employee who draws salary from the company. Hence no adverse action should be taken against CSK.

BCCI, Srinivasan and India Cements filed their affidavits in response to the court's notice after the probe committee named four big individuals — Srinivasan, Meiyappan, Raj Kundra (owner of Rajasthan Royals) and Sundar Raman (IPL chief operating officer) — in its report.

The court will hear the matter on Monday.

WHAT THEY SAID
N Srinivasan: I believe the conclusion of the report is that I was not involved in any betting or match-fixing activity nor did I scuttle any investigations. This clearly vindicates my stand... There is absolutely no reason for me to continue to stay away from my elected position in the BCCI

BCCI: The incident (involving Individual No. 3 during India's tour of Sri Lanka in 2010) was a minor one. The player was orally reprimanded and Shashank Manohar, the BCCI president at that time, was satisfied with the explanation given by the player

India Cements: Gurunath Meiyappan (Srinivasan's son-in-law and former CSK team principal) is neither a shareholder nor a director or employee who draws salary from the company. Hence no adverse action should be taken against CSK