IPL spot fixing: Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan granted bail

In a major setback to the Delhi Police, a court here on Monday indicted them for slapping the stringent provisions of MCOCA on cricketers S Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and 17 others and granted the accused bail in the IPL spot-fixing case.

However, the third player arrested in the case -- Ajit Chandila -- remains in jail since he hadn't applied for bail.

"There is no reason for believing that the accused are guilty under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) at this stage," Additional Sessions Judge Vinay Kumar Khanna said.

The court said there is prima facie "no sufficient material" against the accused to establish their "nexus" with organised crime syndicate.u00a0

Sreesanth being transported to the Saket court. File Pic/AFP

Besides the two cricketers, the court also granted the relief to 17 other accused, including 14 bookies, on a personal bond of Rs 50,000 with one surety of the like amount.

"There are allegations of betting by bookies and fixing by players for benefiting the syndicate. After probing into the matter deeply and going into the materials placed before the court, this court finds that there is no sufficient material on record to establish that there is a nexus of accused with the organised crime syndicate," the judge said.

Delhi Police have so far arrested 26 persons, including Sreesanth and two of his Rajasthan Royals teammates - Chavan and Chandila - in connection with the case.

Besides the 19 who were granted bail by the court, six others are now in judicial custody till June 18 while one of the alleged bookies, Ramesh Vyas, is in police custody till June 18. Chandila and six others have not yet applied for bail.u00a0

After setbacks from a local court which granted bail to all the accused in spot-fixing, Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar today said it will examine the order before deciding the future course of action.u00a0

"We will examine the order and consult legal experts before deciding on future course of action," the Police Chief told PTI here.

He refused to take any further questions and said "let us read the order first."

Delhi Police had arrested 19 people, including three cricketers S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankit Chavan of Rajasthan Royals and 16 bookies and punters who were allegedly involved in spot-fixing during the just-concluded IPL tournanament.