14 arrested for match-fixing in Rajasthan cricket league

Yash Goyal

Jaipur, July 21

Rajasthan Police have arrested 14 people, including six players, for match fixing and spot fixing during Rajputana Premier League being held at KL Saini Stadium here from July 11-21. 

On receiving information from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) that a gang is involved in a tournament in cricket betting at a high level, the Jaipur police carried out searches and raids leading to arrest of 14 people, including six state players, JP Commissioner Sanjay Agarwal said. 

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Police conducted raids at four hotels of the city and allegedly recovered Rs 38.47 lakh, laptops, walky-talkies and 18 mobiles from their possession, the Commissioner said.

The accused belong to Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Jaipur, and are players, umpires and organisers of the RPL, Agarwal said.

The accused who have most probably links with IPL organisers or managers were identified as Wazir Khan, Bahare Khan, Dinesh Talwar, Rajesh Pareek, Pawan Kumar, Jasvinder Singh, Irfan Khan, Ananddeep Kapoor, Gurmeet Singh, Amandeep, Jatin, Lovepreet, Kaman and Manoj. 

They were arrested under Sections 420 and 120-B of the IPC. Six teams were participating in the RPL which was stopped after raids and arrests. 

Preliminary investigation revealed that the gang had members who were playing in some of the teams. On the direction of their bosses, they deliberately got out or whatever their bosses gave them direction they followed--like bowling no balls, or getting out in a particular over.

The police said a meeting was held on June 24-25 in Delhi and Gujarat of some people in which Wazir and Bahare also participated to finalise strategy for spot fixing and match fixing for bookies.

Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau and security unit of the BCCI jointly worked with JPC to conduct raids and made arrests. The joint teams are interrogating 60 other people who might have links with the scam.