Police custody of 3 bookies extended in IPL betting case

MUMBAI: Observing that "sufficient ground exists for police custody," a local court today extended the remand of main bookie Ashwin Agarwal alias Tinku Delhi and two other bookies till June 10 in the IPL betting case, while sending two more bookies in judicial custody till June 20.


Besides Agarwal, the two other bookies who have been sent in police custody are Kishore Badalani and Paresh Bhatia.

Hearing the remand application of the crime branch, the court also sent two more bookies, Kishore Pabalani and Dinesh Sharma, in judicial custody till June 10.

The crime branch had further sought custody of the accused on the ground that further investigation was necessary.

Prosecutor Kiran Bendbar told the court that their custody was essential to trace absconding accused. "Since the Delhi Police have applied MCOCA in the case, we want to probe more about their role," the remand application said.

The police also wanted to find out other 'hawala operators' involved in the crime, the application said.

However, defence lawyers argued that sufficient investigation has been completed in the case and the accused may be remanded in judicial custody.

"Tinku was already in custody of Delhi Police and this is a fight of supremacy as to whether Mumbai Police or Delhi Police is superior," argued Tinku's advocate Tarun Sharma.

Sharma also argued that ten accused are already on bail and the court has observed that the prosecution has not made out any case of forgery or cheating against them.

Magistrate A M Padwad, however, after hearing both sides, remanded Tinku, Badalani and Bhatia in police custody till June 10, while he sent Sharma and Pabalani in judicial remand till June 20.

"The perusal of the case diary gives an idea of the offences that are likely to come up at the conclusion of investigation. To hold otherwise at this stage would rather amount to denial of fair opportunity to investigating agency to make a detailed probe into the matter," the court observed.

Meanwhile, the court has also directed the Arthur Road Central jail officials to produce bookie Ramesh Vyas before a Delhi court. Vyas had alleged that he was detained even though he had been granted bail by the local court.