IPL spot-fixing: Police opposes bail plea of Ajit Chandila, others

Delhi Police today opposed the bail plea of Rajasthan Royal's player Ajit Chandila in the IPL spot-fixing scandal saying he was a "key conspirator" in the entire case and was acting at the behest of a syndicate run by gangster Dawood Ibrahim.

In its reply filed before Additional Sessions Judge Ajay Kumar Jain, the Special Cell of Delhi Police said Chandila was directly in contact with bookies and players and had received money to perform as per their directions.

"For accused Ajit Chandila, it is reiterated that this player has emerged as the key conspirator in the entire chain acting on behalf of the syndicate... A huge amount of money has also been recovered at his instance, which was received from various fixers. In view of the centrality of his role, his bail is strongly opposed," the police said.

The police reply came on the bail applications filed by Chandila, Ashwani Aggarwal, Baburao Yadav, Deepak Kumar and Sunil Bhatia, which was also strongly opposed.

The court, has also directed police to file reply on the bail application of alleged bookie Ramesh Vyas, who moved the court seeking relief after being remanded in judicial custody till June 18.

After hearing the arguments for a short time, the judge adjourned the applications for tomorrow saying he has to go through the file throughly.

Delhi Police on May 16 arrested three cricketers -- S Sreesanth, Chandila and Ankeet Chavan of Rajasthan Royal's -- on charges of spot-fixing.

Delhi Police slapped provisions of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) on Sreesanth, Chandila, Chavan and on 25 others in the case, alleging that they were acting under the command of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel.

The court had granted bail to Sreesanth, Chavan and 19 others due to lack of evidence to be charged under MCOCA.

While opposing the bail for Ashwani, police said, "He is a major bookie of Delhi having link with D-company and was the master controller of all north India terrorist on behalf of Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel syndicate." The police said accused Vyas, whose arrest in this case has been affected on June 8, has disclosed the role played by Ashwani as the link between the fixers, bookies and hawala operators in India and syndicate members who are operating from Dubai and Pakistan.

They also said that the angle of inter-gang rivalry between Dawood and Chhota Rajan has cropped up during the probe.

"Inter syndicate rivalry is a new angle which has been revealed in this plot by Vyas," police said, adding it needs to be probed thoroughly.

The police in their reply said that as per the material on record Bhatia was acting as the henchmen fixer for Ashwani.

They said, "Bhatia was found fixing players as well as threatening them for failed or undelivered performances. He was directly in touch with Chandila and, through him with others like Siddharth Triwedi."

The reply also said that Bhatia was closely linked with the hawala network of Ashwani as all the payments made by him to Chandila were made using these channels.

The police said that Yadav, an ex-Ranji player, has assisted Bhatia for match fixing with Chandila.