BCCI’s unit had alerted IPL teams about Karan Gilhotra, says official

Karan Gilhotra, a suspected bookie whose socialising photographs with BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur prompted the International Cricket Council to send a warning to the Indian cricket board, was already under the scanner of the anti-corruption unit of BCCI last year.

An enquiry by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) in May last year had described Gilhotra as a "person of not good repute" who was strongly rumoured to be involved in "heavy betting" on cricket. It turns out the ACU had alerted all the Indian Premier League team owners about Gilhotra, a socialite based in Chandigarh.

In a confidential letter to all the IPL team owners and former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, dated May 22, 2014, and titled ‘ACU Alert-Karan Gilhotra’, ACU director Ravi Sawani "advised" all the franchise managements to ensure that Gilhotra is "not entertained by any of their squad members".

ET reviewed a copy of the letter. "He (Gilhotra) is believed to be in touch with a number of players spread amongst various franchisees and often manages to obtain hospitality invites to matches, more specifically matches being played in Mohali. He has often also managed to get into some of the post-match parties organised by the franchisees at the hotels," it said.

It said Gilhotra "was in the UAE during the first leg of IPL 7 and now noticed in the Taj and J W Marriott hotels in Chandigarh where the IPL teams are put up". "If he has approached anyone for any information or favour the same may please be informed to their respective team integrity officers," the letter said.

Gilhotra’s Facebook profile flaunts his umpteen clicks with superstar Salman Khan, one with tycoon Mukesh Ambani in jersey of Kings XI, and another picture with cricketer Yuvraj Singh. When contacted, Gilhotra told ET that he knows Thakur for the past ten years. Denying knowledge of any inquiry by BCCI's ACU last year, he said, "I was never contacted by the BCCI or anyone. It is nothing but an attempt to malign the reputation of Mr Thakur, owing to internal politics."