New Delhi: The Tamil Nadu government has approached the Supreme Court alleging that suspended IPS officer Sampath Kumar, who was impleaded by the apex court in a case pertaining to IPL spot fixing and betting scandal, had extracted bribe from bookies.
The state government filed an application pleading the apex court to implead it in the case in which a bench headed by Justice A K Patnaik has reserved its order on setting up probe panel to conduct inquiry against N Srinivasan and 12 prominent cricketers against whom allegations were made by the Justice Mudgal committee in a sealed envelope.
The state government refuted the allegations made by Kumar, in which he had said proper probe was not conducted by Chennai Police in betting and spot fixing scandal, and said that he was suspended on charges of extortion and demanding bribe from bookies.
“During the course of investigation, six bookies were arrested on the date of registration of this case and based on the confession of the accused efforts were made to arrest other bookies. In view of the role of intervener/applicant in extracting a bribe amount from the accused (bookies) and also for other delinquencies he was suspended by the government.
“In order to escape from the clutches of law the intervener/applicant has deposed falsely before the probe committee headed by Justice Mudgal,” the government said. The apex court had earlier impleaded Kumar in the case in which he had sought SIT inquiry into the scandal and alleged that he was suspended as the state investigating authority tried to cover up the scandal.
The apex court had earlier on April 29 reserved its order on constituting a probe panel to investigate against Srinivasan and 12 cricketers in the scandal after BCCI and Srinivasan opposed further investigation by Justice Mudgal committee and pleaded for setting up a fresh panel. The bench had earlier suggested that further probe be conducted by the Justice Mudgal Committee itself to maintain confidentiality of the allegations.
The bench had said that the allegations would be known to other people if a fresh panel comprising new members is allowed to conduct the probe.
BCCI had also informed the court that it had decided to constitute a three-member panel to further probe the scandal but the bench said it will pass the order after hearing all the parties and after considering Justice Mudgal Committee's reply.
The all-powerful working committee of the Board had in its emergent meeting on April 20 decided to suggest the names of former all-rounder Ravi Shastri, former Calcutta High Court Chief Justice JN Patel and ex-CBI director R K Raghavan as members of the probe committee.
The apex court had on April 16 expressed reservations over a SIT or CBI probe, saying that institutional autonomy of the Board has to be maintained and a committee constituted by the BCCI to look into the issue would be preferred. The court had said that it cannot “close its eyes” to the allegations made by its probe committee in the scandal and a probe must be conducted to clear the air as some prominent players were named in the report submitted in sealed envelop.
Earlier, Justice Mudgal, who had headed a three-member committee, submitted a report in a sealed envelope to the court.
