Friday hearing for Mudgal panel report

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will go through the Justice Mudgal Committee report on the betting and spot-fixing scandal in the 2013 edition of the Indian Premier League on Friday. The court said it will also examine whether the report could be made public.

At the outset of the hearing, the apex court bench headed by Justice TS Thakur said they had yet to go through the report.

Earlier, a member of the investigation team had told HT, “Most of the allegations we were investigating were hearsay. But there is substance in some of them. The committee has already submitted its report. Now, it is up to the Supreme Court to interpret the evidence and take whatever action it deems fit.”

A top BCCI official had said, “The questions the committee asked players and BCCI officials were based on information provided by persons who had been arrested or detained by the police for their alleged involvement in betting. Or they (people who deposed before the committee) were asked if they knew something about fixing. I don’t think the committee has concrete evidence.” SATISFIED WITH WORK “We have done a satisfactory investigation. I am satisfied with my team’s work,” said Bibhuti Bhusana Mishra, deputy director general, Narcotics Control Bureau.

On May 16, the Supreme Court had asked Mishra to head the probe. The committee investigated 13 players and officials suspected to be involved in the fixing scandal.

The list included ICC chairman N Srinivasan.

In its first re po r t , the

THE QUESTIONS THE COMMITTEE ASKED PLAYERS AND BCCI OFFICIALS WERE BASED ON INFORMATION PROVIDED BY PERSONS WHO HAD BEEN ARRESTED OR DETAINED BY THE POLICE FOR THEIR ALLEGED INVOLVEMENT IN BETTING

A TOP BCCI OFFICIAL

committee had declared Srinivasan’s so n - i n - l aw, Gurunath Meiyappan, as a Chennai Super Kings official. The Mumbai Police also claimed that it had concrete evidence of Meiyappan’s betting activities during the IPL last year.

The committee took into account audio tapes provided by the Mumbai Police and also relied on recordings of a three-and-half-year-old phone conversations between persons allegedly involved in betting. The tapes were provided to the panel by a media house.

The stiff timeline was a challenge for the committee, as were the other hurdles. Identifying voices of the people allegedly involved was a challenge because the committee struggled to find people who could identify the voice samples. Before winding up the probe, the committee had also examined some star cricketers.

Mishra was assisted by senior police officers from Chennai and Mumbai. Additional Solicitor General L Nageswara Rao, advocate Nilay Dutta and Sourav Ganguly were other members of the committee.