Spot-fixing: Delhi Police's media trial and error

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 26

In May 2015, when Delhi Police, in a very public exhibition, before TV cameras and reporters, virtually condemned three cricketers for their alleged role in spot-fixing in IPL 2013.

Yesterday, a Delhi trial court threw out Delhi Police’s case against cricketers S Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila. Thirty-nine other accused were acquitted by the court due to insufficient evidence. This throws serious doubts about the competence and evidence-gathering abilities of Delhi Police and the man who headed it in 2013, Neeraj Kumar.

In May 2013, Kumar was the Commissioner of Police of Delhi. In a press conference that month, Kumar virtually pronounced Sreesanth, Chavan and Chandila guilty of spot-fixing. He said that the three players had given away a “pre-determined number of runs” in different IPL matches, in return for big sums of money from bookies. Kumar said that their investigation was based on over 100 hours of audio recordings, which were made after the police began tracking phone calls of “gullible players” in April 2013.

Delhi Police DCP Sanjeev Yadav then read out transcripts of conversations between the cricketers and bookies. “On May 5, there was a match between Rajasthan Royals and Pune Warriors. I would like to tell you about the conversation between a player, Ajit Chandila, and Amit, a bookie. In this conversation, Ajit Chandila explains what kind of signals he would give before an over (to indicate spot-fixing that over).” Yadav also said how Jiju, who he said was a friend of Sreesanth, had a conversation with a bookie named Chand regarding a match in Mohali on May 9. “In that conversation, it was decided that Sreesanth in his second over, would give 14 runs or over, and would give a signal,” said Yadav. “He would tuck a (small) towel in the front of his trousers.” Yadav then showed video clips that showed Sreesanth bowling the first over without a towel, and the second with a towel tucked into his trouser front.

The certitude of Delhi Police and its top officials caused a trial by the media. Later that month, Kumar said in an interview: “It is not a media trial. Supposing we have made these arrests and not disclosed all these facts, would have anyone believed us? I mean we would have been laughing stocks. How could we lock up three players of one team and so many bookies without evidence?”

Kumar has since retired from police and is part of the cricket establishment. He was included in the BCCI’s anti-corruption unit during the IPL. Earlier this month, he was named the chief advisor of security and anti corruption unit (ACSU) of the BCCI for the 2016 T20 World Cup to be hosted by India.

Kumar and Delhi Police have indeed become laughing stocks. Despite possessing “strong evidence”, they failed to mount a strong case in court. One reason for that seems to be that they chose to prosecute the players under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). This looks like a mistake – MCOCA is meant to deal with organised crime, which entails “continuing unlawful activity”.

Among other things, yesterday’s court order observed: “There is not even a single criminal case that has been registered against the accused S. Sreesanth, Jiju Janardhan and Abhishek Shukla prior to the present case. In the absence of this and of nexus with the crime syndicate, it cannot be said that he was indulging in continuing unlawful activity."

In the west, police doesn’t organise trials by the media. Before producing the arrested accused in court, they don’t even reveal their identities. But in India, police regularly holds trials through press conferences – remember the wild and indiscriminate claims made by top police officials in press conferences over the Nithari killings or the Aarushi murder case? Most of the claims fell flat.

The BCCI’s anti-corruption unit has had no worthwhile achievement to show during its existence. Delhi’s No. 1 police officer, who launched the public trial of Sreesanth and the two other cricketers in 2013, is now part of it. That isn’t a very hopeful situation.