The co-owner of Rajasthan Royals, one of the nine franchises involved in IPL 20/20 cricket, has allegedly admitting to betting during his interrogation by police in IPL spot-fixing probe.

New Delhi, June 6/Nationalturk – The probe into Indian Premier League (IPL) 20/20 cricket tournament has got further murkier with the team co-owner of Rajasthan Royals (one of the nine franchises) allegedly admitting to betting during his interrogation by police yesterday.

Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar said Rajasthan Royals co-owner Raj Kundra has admitted to betting in IPL, which concluded recently.

“Kundra was called for questioning yesterday because we got to know he was involved in betting,” he said adding Kundra has admitted that he was into betting.

The police commissioner told media men that Kundra, a British national, even placed bets on matches of his own team (Rajasthan Royals) through his business partner Umesh Goenka.

“Kundra suffered huge losses due to betting,” Kumar said adding Kundra being a British national won’t affect investigation into the case.

Kundra was interrogated by police for 12 hours

Quoting sources, Indian TV news channel CNN-IBN reported that Kundra was questioned for almost 12 hours by Delhi Police’s Special Cell yesterday. “Police found some of Kundra’s answers to be inconsistent and he may be questioned again”.

They said Kundra’s business partner Umesh Goenka is likely to be questioned again by police.

Sources said Goenka’s name came during the recording of statement of Rajasthan Royal player Sidharth Trivedi, a prosecution witness in the case.
“In his statement recorded before a magistrate, Trivedi claimed that Goenka approached him and sought details about the cricket pitch in Ahmedabad and team formations,” sources said.

Media reports claimed that the Delhi police have seized Kundra’s passport and asked him not to leave the country till the spot-fixing probe is over.
It was also reported that the Delhi Police have not ruled out the possibility of Kundra’s arrest due to inconsistency in his statements during spot-fixing probe.

Kundra’s wife and Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty has said Goenka has misused Kundra’s name. “The owners of the IPL team have not done anything wrong. We will do everything to aid the police get to the bottom of it as a witness,” she told Indian TV channel NDTV.

Shilpa Shetty, Dravid may be questioned

Sources said Shilpa Shetty and captain of Rajasthan Royals Rahul Dravid might be questioned after Delhi Police Commissioner claimed that Kundra confessed to betting during interrogation yesterday.

Three cricketers from the Royals including S Sreesanth were arrested last month on charges that they took money from bookies to concede a pre-determined number of runs in the recently-concluded edition of the IPL.

The team owner of another franchise Chennai Superkings Gurunath Meiyappan has also reportedly admitted to betting during interrogation. He was detained by police after his name cropped up during investigations. He remained in jail for a fortnight and was released on bail day before yesterday.

Gurunath Meiyappan is son-in-law of Indian cricket board chief N Srinivasan, who has quit from the post for the time till the probe in spot-fixing is completed.

Spot-fixing, in which a specific part of the match but not the outcome is fixed, is illegal.

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Faiz Ahmad / NationalTurk India News

 

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