IPL spot-fixing: MCOCA made out against some accused, says Court

NEW DELHI: In a fresh trouble to those allegedly involved in the IPL spot-fixing scandal, a Delhi court today said some of the arrested accused persons were having "nexus" with the organised crime syndicate which bring the case under the fold of stringent MCOCA.

"In the present case, in the light of incriminating evidence that some of the accused persons named above were having direct link or nexus with organised crime syndicate, facilitating and running betting racket, that would bring the case within the fold of section 2 (1) (e) read with section 3 of MCOCA," Additional Sessions Judge Dharmesh Sharma said.

The observations came while granting bail to suspended cricketer Ajit Chandila and two others, who were arrested in connection with the case.

The order assumes significance as a trial court earlier on June 10 had granted bail to suspended cricketers S Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and other accused in the case and had ticked off special cell of Delhi police for slapping stringent provisions of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) on them.

The court today granted bail to Rajasthan Royals' player Chandila, ex-Ranji player Baburao Yadav and one of the alleged bookie Deepak Kumar but dismissed the bail applications of five other arrested accused. Chandila was arrested on May 16.

Chandila, Yadav and Kumar were granted bail on a personal bond of Rs 50,000 each with one surety of like amount while bail pleas of alleged bookies Ramesh Vyas, Ashwani Agarwal, Sunil Bhatia, Firoz Farid Ansari and Jitender Kumar Jain were dismissed by the court.

The court, in its 35-page order, said although Chandila was prima facie alleged to be a "key fixer" but there was no credible evidence against him regarding his knowledge about the entire scandal.

"All said and done, the evidence against accused Ajit Chandila is uninspiring since mens rea is a necessary ingredient for commission of a crime under MCOCA and although Chandila is prima facie a key fixer in spot/session fixing, there is no credible evidence" to show that he had "any knowledge or connection of accused bookies and conduit Sunil Bhatia having a nexus with the organised crime syndicate," it said.