Delhi High Court Issues Notice to Sreesanth in IPL Spot-Fixing Case

The notices issued by Justice Siddharth Mridul of Delhi High Court has asked all of them to be present High Court on December 16 for the next hearing of this case.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought the responses of suspended cricketers S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan and 33 others on a plea by the city police challenging their discharge by a trial court in the 2013 IPL-6 spot fixing scandal case. At the time of their acquittal, the trial court observed that “all the necessary ingredients to establish a prima facie case under the provisions of MCOCA is not made out”.

The trio who were teammates in the Rajasthan Royals (RR) setup, were arrested by the Delhi Police in May-June 2013 over charges of spot-fixing and receiving kickbacks from bookies with close links to the underworld. These three were declared as proclaimed offenders in this case.

Earlier, the court had adjourned the matter following the counsel for the Delhi police requested for it on personal grounds. The Delhi Police has argued that the logic and conclusions put forth for discharging the accused was not correct. But the trial court ruled there was not enough evidence for charges to be framed under the MCOCA.

The appeal moved by the Special Cell of Delhi Police has contended that the Sessions Court’s order giving clean chit to the accused was unsustainable, as it had “erroneously interpreted” the law pertaining to the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) under which the case was registered.

Sreesanth, Chavan and Chandila were alleged to be involved with betting and spot-fixing during IPL 6. The board’s disciplinary committee is yet to decide about Chandila.