The world of cricket and glitz and glamour of the Indian Premier League were jolted once again on May 15, 2013 as the most popular cricket league found itself embroiled in a spot-fixing scandal.
Hours before the match between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals, a Delhi Police team sent by then Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar arrested bookies and three cricketers in regard to a spot-fixing case that they had been chasing.
The Rajasthan Royals camp was shred to bits as three cricketers - S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan were nabbed by the Delhi Police on corruption charges.
Sreesanth’s arrest, who was part of India’s triumphant squad at the World T20 in 2007 and 2011 World Cup, came as a shock to the Indian cricket fans. Along with him, Mumbai spinner Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila were also nabbed. All the three cricketers were suspended from the IPL with immediate effect and the league rolled on.
All the three and the bookies involved were sent to police custody for five days where they were interrogated.
The special cell Delhi police asked for seven days of custodial interrogation of the cricketers in order to get to the root and unravel the entire conspiracy. They named three Rajasthan Royals’ matches — on May 5, 9 and 15 against Pune Warriors, Kings XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians where they said fixing had taken place.
The controversy raged ahead and the names of Gurunath Meiyappan, Team Principal of Chennai Super Kings as well as the son-in-law of the then BCCI president N Srinivasan came up for cheating and fraud.
Delhi Police made another big revelation where they named Rajasthan Royals owner Raj Kundra for being involved in betting on IPL matches. Kundra too confessed his involvement.
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