New Delhi: In findings that could leave IPL teams Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals vulnerable, the Justice Mudgal Committee has indicted their officials Gurunath Meiyappan and Raj Kundra of betting and confirmed their role in their teams but cleared N Srinivasan of match fixing and scuttling the probe.
The three-member Committee, in its report to the Supreme Court, however, indicted the BCCI President-in-exile for not taking action against a cricketer, who it did not name, for violating Players Code of Conduct despite being aware of it.
It confirmed Meiyappan was a team official (team principal) of CSK while RR's owner Kundra's “infractions violated BCCI/IPL Anti Corruption Code”.
A provision in the IPL code of conduct says that any Franchise, Group Company or owner acts in any way which effects the reputation of the League or BCCI-IPL, the Franchise will be scrapped.
The Committee, headed by retired High Court Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal with Additional Solicitor General L Nageshwar Rao and senior advocate Nilay Dutta as members, held that Srinivasan's son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was involved in betting but not in match fixing.
It also questioned why Rajasthan police stopped probe abruptly on Kundra for his betting activities after the case was transferred from Delhi police.
Further, the Committee found that IPL CEO Sunder Raman knew of a contact of a bookie and had contacted him eight times in one season.
“This individual (Sunder Raman) admitted knowing the contact of the bookies but, however, claimed to be unaware of his connection with betting activities.
“This individual also accepted that he had received information about individual 1 (Meiyappan) and individual 11 (Kundra) taking part in betting activities but was informed by the ICC-ACSU chief that this was not actionable information. Thgis individual also accepted that this information was not conveyed to any other individual,” the Committee said.
While giving its findings on Srinivasan, the panel said “This individual is not involved with match fixing activity. This individual was not found to be involved in scuttling the investigations into match fixing.”
“This individual (Srinivasan) along with four other BCCI officials was aware of the violation of the Players Code of Conduct by individual 3, but no action was taken against individual 3 by any of the aforesaid officials who were aware of this infraction,” the report, which was supplied to the parties today, said.
The findings on Meiyappan said, “No material is available on record to show that this individual is involved in match fixing.”
“Thus the Committee is of the view that due to the scientific evidence of voice matching and the testimony of security personnel recorded by the investigating team, the finding about the betting activities of individual 1 (Meiyappan) and the finding that he was a team official stand confirmed,” it said.
The report said investigations have confirmed that Meiyappan was a team official of a franchiseee and he was in close touch with individual 2 with whom he had frequently meetings in his hotel room.
The report, supplied to different parties in the case, only revealed the name of Meiyappan, Kundra, Raman and Srinivasan. Names of other persons including cricketers were not disclosed as the per the apex court order.
