BCCI ACU officials question alleged bookie Dandiwal

CASES HAVE BEEN REGISTERED AGAINST DANDIWAL AND THE TWO BOOKIES, INCLUDING UNDER SECTIONS 420 (CHEATING) AND 120B (CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY) OF THE INDIAN PENAL CODE, POLICE SAID

MOHALI/MUMBAI:BOARD of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) anticorruption officials questioned Ravinder Singh Dandiwal, alleged kingpin of an illegal cricket betting racket accused of hosting a fake T20 tournament near Mohali, on Tuesday.

Dandiwal, 35, was arrested by Mohali police on Monday for organising the league in Swara village of Mohali district, which had been projected as a league played in Sri Lanka. A two-member ACU team along with senior Punjab Police officers visited Sadar police station in Kharar and questioned Dandiwal. Sydney Morning Herald recently reported that Australian investigators have named Dandiwal as the central figure in an international tennis match-fixing scandal.

Superintendent of Police (rural) Ravjot Kaur Grewal said the team questioned Dandiwal and that he had organised cricket events in Sri Lanka, Australia and Dubai in the last five years.

He told the investigators he formed a club ‘Cricket Council of India (CCI)’ in 2009 and organised matches under its banner in Mohali, Amritsar and Bhopal, she said. Grewal said players’ statement in the ties held at Sawara village will also be recorded.

BANNED FRANCHISE OWNER AGARWAL HELD Deepak Agarwal, serving a twoyear ban (six months suspended) from all cricket by International Cricket Council (ICC) for breaching its anti-corruption code, and 50 others were arrested last Saturday for organising and participating in an unauthorised cricket match in Noida—this time for breaching rules under Epidemic Act. They are all out on bail.

Agarwal is also a ‘person of interest’ of the BCCI ACU book, which tipped off officials. “We had source-based information that a match was going to happen. We communicated it to the police, following which Deepak Agarwal’s league was scuttled. On the first day, police disrupted it,” BCCI ACU head Ajit Singh said.

“They had bowled a few overs, before which we put an end to it. They had sought no permission, no social distancing norms were being followed,” Rajesh Kumar Singh, deputy commissioner of police, Greater Noida, said.

ICC in its verdict against Agarwal says his sanction could be revisited. ‘He must not commit any offence under the Code (or the anti-corruption rules of any National Cricket Federation) during the period of suspension.’

It was Agarwal’s approaches for inside information to ex-bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan that led to his two-year ban last October.