Mumbai/New Delhi, May 16: As the noose tightens around mercurial Indian cricketer S. Sreesanth, the Special Cell of the Delhi Police has revealed that its officers were tapping the phones of cricketers ever since the IPL began in April.
Pacer Sreesanth and two of his Rajasthan Royals teammates Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, were in the spotfixing and matchfixing conspiracy, police sources said.
The spotfixing was being done with phone connections crackling between Mumbai, Delhi, Karachi and Dubai, sources said, with the notorious Dawood Ibrahim gang very much in the picture.
Rs 25 lakhs each were paid to the cricketers, police sources said, with most of the money paid in US dollars through the hawala route in Dubai.
Sreesanth was arrested from his friend's place in Mumbai while the other two cricketers were arrested Wednesday night from the Trident hotel at Nariman Point.
The arrests took place immediately after the players returned to their team hotel, following their match against Mumbai Indians at Wankhede stadium which they lost by 14 runs.
More arrests are likely, with 12 matches under the scanner, police said.
Nearly 70 phones were tapped by the special cell. The cops said Ankeet Chavan fixed the Rajasthan Royals vs Mumbai Indians match, while Sreesanth fixed the Rajasthan Royals vs Kings XI match.
Police said two bookies, identified as Jiju and one who goes by the code name Jupiter, represent Dawood Ibrahim's D company and had met players in Gurgaon on May 6 and 7.
They said Chandila was sent by Sreesanth to Sahara Mall in Gurgaon to meet the bookies who operated in Gujarat, as the front runners for D company. The meeting lasted about 45 ,minutes. Cops claim they have evidence of it.
Police said Sreesanth communicated with bookies through What'sapp and Blackberry Messenger and was not in direct touch with them over phone.
He had reportedly roped in Chandila and Chavan in the fixing. Police said the money trail was routed through Dubai and about 30 calls were routed through Pakistan.
Sources said about Rs 25 lakh was paid to each player, while part payment was in cash, the rest was to be paid in dollars.
Police said the Rajasthan Royals' team management will be called later to be questioned on whether they were aware of any of this.
Delhi police sources also said these players were under the scanner for their role in spot-fixing in some of the earlier IPL match although they did not elaborate which matches were under scrutiny.
The police are looking for two more bookies in Delhi.
Delhi Police had been keeping a telephonic surveillance on Sreesanth's first cousin Jiju Janardhan and Chandresh alias Jupiter, who had direct connections with the Dawood gang. Jiju Janardhan had produced a video album Jaago India for Sreesanth.
Delhi Police officers matched the phone tapping conversations with video recording of IPL matches to nail the spot fixing, even up to the wide balls and no balls.
Chandresh alias Jupiter used to take bets from Jaipur, Delhi and Dubai by opening telephone lines. His phones were under surveillance for the last two months, police sources said.
Delhi Police has telephonic conversation records between D gang man Manopj Metro and Jupiter, in which the names of at least 3 indian players and 2 international players have been clearly mentioned.
Jiju Janardhan on his part used to " cutting" work for D company and his operations were from Kochi, Delhi and Dubai. He had also links with D company bookies sitting in Karachi.
Delhi Police officers claimed, they had more than 20 call records of conversations between Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Kochi, Dubai and Karachi. A few bookies named by police include one Kothari from Kumbai, Bunty and Tinku from Delhi, and Chandresh alias Jupiter from Jaipur.
