New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed Justice Mukul Mudgal committee to complete it’s investigation into the IPL betting and spot-fixing scandal in two months, while declining BCCI’s request to reinstate N Srinivasan as the board’s president.
SC, in the meanwhile, allowed the Mudgal committee to file another interim report and allowed it to question Srinivasan or any other individual.
Mudgal committee had on Friday sought a two-month extension to complete its probe. The committee had submitted its report to the apex court on August 29.
The report in a sealed envelope was submitted to the court by a senior lawyer instead of senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam, who had previously acted as an amicus curiae for the Supreme Court.
On August 20, a statement was released saying the committee has no intention to travel abroad for any interaction with players. The release summed up, “any interaction with the players during a series may disturb their poise and concentration.â€
Last October, the apex court had constituted the Justice Mukul Mudgal panel to investigate the spot-fixing and betting case in the case-rich IPL. The three-member panel led by Justice Mudgal, a retired Punjab and Haryana High Court judge, has Additional Solicitor General L Nageswara Rao and senior advocate Nilay Dutta in the committee.
And on February 10, the committee submitted its first report to the court after conducting a four-month long probe. It is learnt that cricketers, board officials, cops, lawyers and even journalists had deposed before the panel and depositions were recorded during the probe on equipment provided by BCCI.
In the follow up, the court had asked the committee to continue its investigation of the persons named in the sealed envelope and the committee was also given greater powers to effectively conduct its probe. After agreeing to lead the investigation, Justice (Retired) Mudgal had listed for specific organisations and individuals whose assistance he would require, which included a former India cricketer “of repute and integrity”.
The committee, which was being assisted by former senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer BB Mishra, had been given all investigative powers, including search and seizure of relevant documents and recording evidence. However, it cannot carry out any arrests. The committee was assured of assistance from one senior police officer each from Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi.
The spot fixing and betting scandal had hit the 2013 edition of IPL, with Delhi Police arresting three Rajasthan Royals cricketers – S. Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan – in a midnight raid in Mumbai. Then, Mumbai police also unearthed betting links after they arrested Gurunath Meiyappan, son-in-law of former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief N Srinivasan, and Bollywood actor Vindu Dara Singh.