SCto see Mudgal report on Nov. 10
The Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee submitted its final probe report against sidelined cricket board president and International Cricket Council chairman N. Srinivasan and 12 cricketers in the IPL-6 betting and spot-fixing scandal before the Supreme Court on Monday.
A bench headed by Justice T.S. Thakur said it will take up the report on November 10, when the case is heard. Appearing before the bench, senior advocate Raju Ramachandran said the final report had been prepared and was being filed in the SC.
Justice Mudgal expressed satisfaction over the panel’s work and clarified that its members had not been under pressure while conducting the probe.
Justice Mukul Mudgal refused to say anything about the content of the report against sidelined cricket board president and International Cricket Council chairman N. Srinivasan and 12 cricketers in the IPL-6 betting and spot-fixing scandal.
“It’s up to the Supreme Court whether it finds our work satisfactory. We complied with the order and have done a good job. The report has been filed before the court and it (SC) will decide the course of action,” he said.
The court had on September 1 rejected Mr Srinivasan’s plea for reinstatement as BCCI president, saying he cannot be allowed to take charge till he gets a clean chit from the committee probing the issue.
The bench had said the probe was going on and Mr Srinivasan could not be allowed to function as BCCI president. The court had expressed displeasure over the slow pace of the probe and asked the committee to complete its investigations in two months.
It had also allowed the panel to file an interim report on Mr Srinivasan or any other office-bearer under scrutiny.
The Mudgal Committee had filed its interim report in a sealed cover on August 29 before the Supreme Court.
The court had on May 16 given the job of conducting a probe against Mr Srinivasan and 12 players to the panel led by Justice Mudgal, and asked it to file its report by the end of August. It rejected the BCCI’s proposal that it conduct the probe through its own panel.
The Mudgal Committee had in its initial report named Mr Srinivasan and 12 cricketers. Besides Justice Mudgal, the panel includes additional solicitor-general L. Nageshwar Rao and advocate Nilay Dutta as members.
The panel’s preliminary report had also concluded that Mr Srinivasan’s sonin-law Gurunath Meiyappan, team principal of Chennai Super Kings, could be guilty of illegal betting on IPL games. The team is owned by India Cements, and Mr Srinivasan is its managing director.
A group of investigators led by senior IPS officer B.B. Mishra had assisted the Mudgal Committee, which was given the power to probe, search and seize all relevant documents and record evidence in connection with illegal betting and spot-fixing allegations during IPL-6 last year.
Mr Mishra’s team interviewed several cricketers, among them India and CSK captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who was questioned specifically on Meiyappan’s role in the IPL team. The fresh evidence gathered suggests the final report is expected to confirm that Meiyappan, who was arrested in the wake of the betting scandal, was an important CSK official and he was involved in betting in the 2013 IPL edition.It also remains to be seen what impact the Mudgal report and its fallout may have on the annual general meeting of the BCCI, which is scheduled for November 20. Though Mr Srinivasan has put together a powerful lobby, any further adverse comments may jeopardise his chances of returning as Board president, this time as a nominee of the East Zone.