Supreme Court says BCCI should probe IPL fixing scandal

NEW DELHI:The Supreme Court Wednesday said the BCCI should conduct a probe against N Srinivasan and 12 others in the betting and spot fixing scandal to maintain its institutional autonomy as the court cannot "close its eyes" to the allegations made by the Justice Mukul Mudgal committee.

The apex court also allowed Sundar Raman to continue as chief operating officer of the seventh edition of IPL.

A bench headed by Justice A K Patnaik, however, expressed reservation over ordering a SIT or CBI probe, saying that institutional autonomy of the Board has to be maintained and a committee constituted by the BCCI to look into the issue would be preferred.

"Having come to know the nature of allegations, we cannot close our eyes," the bench said, adding that it is concerned about the game of cricket in the country and not about individuals.

Referring to a sealed envelope report of Justice Mudgal committee, the bench said, "It (report) said all these allegations were brought to his (Srinivasan) notice but he did not take any action. That means he was aware about the allegations and did not take it seriously."

In the meantime, the bench allowed Raman to continue to function as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of IPL 7, which is to begin today in Abu Dhabi.

The bench allowed his continuation on the post after veteran cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, appointed as an interim president of BCCI by the apex court, has written to it to take a decision on the fate of Raman.

The apex court had earlier asked Gavaskar to take a decision on whether to remove Raman as COO or not.

The court also made it clear that IPL 7 would go on, as scheduled, and it also agreed to hear the plea of BCCI and Srinivasan for allowing them to get the tapes of audio recording of interactions of the Mudgal committee with Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Srinivasan.