IPL spot-fixing: Court defers order on bail pleas to September 5

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Monday fixed September 5 for its order on the bail pleas of nine accused, including suspended cricketer Ajit Chandila, arrested in connection with the IPL spot-fixing scandal.

Additional Sessions Judge Dharmesh Sharma, who was scheduled to pass the order on the bail pleas today, deferred it for September 5 saying he needs some clarification from the Special Cell of Delhi Police as well as from the defence counsel.

The court, had on August 30, reserved the order on the bail pleas of Ajit Chandila, alleged bookies Jitender Kumar Jain, Ashwani Agarwal, Ramesh Vyas, Deepak Kumar, Sunil Bhatia, Firoz Farid Ansari, ex-Ranji player Baburao Yadav and Chandra Prakash Jain alias Chandresh Jain who was allegedly accepting bets by the name of Jupiter.

Earlier, Chandila's advocate had sought bail on the grounds that his client was a "successful cricketer" and the police had not been able to place any evidence that he was having any common intention to commit such a crime.

He had argued that Chandila was "falsely implicated" in the case and there was no evidence of his alleged links with either underworld don Dawood Ibrahim or Chhota Shakeel.

Similarly, the lawyers, appearing for other eight accused, had also said that police wrongly invoked the provisions of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act ( MCOCA) in the case. They hd argued the accused be granted bail on the ground of parity as 21 others are out on bail.

The police, however, had opposed their bail pleas saying the accused knew that their activities were part of Dawood's syndicate.

The prosecutor had argued that there is a syndicate of Dubai and Pakistan-based Dawood, Chhota Shakeel, Javed Chutani and Salman and India-based Ashwani Agarwal, Ramesh Vyas and Firoz Farid Ansari all of whom are accused in the case.

Police had filed a 6,000-page charge sheet against 39 persons, out of whom 21 are out on bail, nine are in jail and the remaining nine are absconding. Chandresh Jain, the 40th accused, was arrested after filing of the charge sheet in the case.