IPL-6 fixing: Accused stand on no evidence for MCOCA accepted

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court which discharged all the accused, including former cricketer S Sreesanth, in the IPL-6 spot fixing scandal accepted their defence that alleged Call Detail Records and recorded conversations did not prima facie show any match fixing for money transactions for invocations of stringent MCOCA.

Not only the three cricketers but also the alleged bookies had contended that it was not an organized crime by any crime syndicate and therefore the offence under provisions of Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA) was not attracted.

Advocate R K Thakur, appearing for the alleged bookies and other accused including Chandresh Jain alias Jupiter, Manan Upendra Bhatt and Praveen G Thakkar whose connection was shown with Salman Bookie, an aide of gangster Dawood Ibrahim, had contended provisions of law under MCOCA were not followed.

He had pointed out that there is no evidence of any money trail behind the match-fixing and there are no allegations of any violation of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

The Delhi court discharged all 36 accused, including Sreesanth and two other crickters, who were facing trial in the case.