A Chennai hotelier, who allegedly led the IPL betting syndicate in the southern city and was a crucial link between CSK team owner Gurunath Meiyappan and actor Vindu Randhawa, was issued summons to appear before the Mumbai crime branch probing the racket, police said.
"Vikram Agarwal, a hotelier, who was handling Chennai operations of the betting syndicate, and a crucial link between Meiyappan and Vindu, will be issued summons asking him to appear before us," Joint Commissioner (crime) Himanshu Roy told reporters.u00a0
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Roy claimed, Agarwal, owner of Radisson Blu hotel, was also a "key link" between the betting syndicate and Bollywood celebrities.
He, however, did not divulge the names of tinsel town personalities who were in touch with Agarwal.
Gurunath Meiyappan, son-in-law of BCCI President N Srinivasan. File Pic
The crime branch chief said a team from Mumbai today searched Meiyappan's yacht at Marina in Chennai and seized a mobile phone which figured during the investigations that led to the CSK honcho's arrest. Two mobile phones and a diary were seized yesterday during the search of Meiyappan's Chennai residence.
According to Roy, Agarwal knew Meiyappan for the last 15 years and received important insider information about players from CSK and other IPL teams from him.
The diary seized from Meiyappan's residence, he said, contained the names of several players belonging to Chennai Super Kings and other IPL teams and the crime branch was planning to quiz him about the context in which the entries were made.u00a0
Meanwhile, a city court has issued production warrant against a suspected bookie Ashwin Agarwal alias Tinku Delhi, who has been arrested by the special cell of Delhi police.
Roy said Tinku's custodial interrogation was likely to throw more light on the operations of the betting and fixing syndicate.
Continuing the crackdown on IPL betting syndicates, the crime branch today arrested two bookies who were allegedly in telephonic contact with their counterparts in Pakistan for accepting bets.
With this 12 people have been arrested so far by Mumbai police in connection with the betting case being probed by it including actor Vindu and Meiyappan.
Alleged bookies Dinesh Sharma and Kishor Pablani were later produced before a metropolitan court which remanded them in police custody till June 1.
According to crime branch, Ramesh Vyas, kingpin of the racket whose arrest on May 14 blew the lid off the betting racket, had directed calls received from Pakistan on his mobile phone to Sharma and Pablani. These calls pertained to accepting bets from the neighbouring country, they said.
Police said absconding accused Jupiter and Vyas were in touch with each other on a particular phone and the instrument has been recovered from Sharma and Pablani.
Police also said Sharma and Pablani needed to be interrogated further to trace another absconding accused Kishore Badlani alias Kishore Pune. Seeking remand of the duo, the crime branch told the court that fake documents were used by them to procure SIM cards.
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