Tuesday, June 11, 2013

ICC official ‘Terry’ had warned Guru about betting, claim Mumbai police

Mumbai: Another startling piece of information tumbled out in the IPL spot-fixing scandal on Friday. An ICC official, known as ‘Terry’, had warned CSK team principal Gurunath Meiyappan that the latter was under surveillance for betting, Mumbai police officials said.
    Sources said Terry is either a South African or a British national and part of the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) unit of the international cricket body. “We are trying to establish Terry’s identity before speaking to ICC officials. If required, we will record their statement,” a senior police officer said.
    The ACSU keeps players, team members and umpires under surveillance in order to check malpractices in the game. Police said they are surprised that an ICC official directly got in touch with Gurunath instead of alerting BCCI. The board has denied receiving any alerts from ICC.
    During the interrogation Gurunath told police that Terry had warned him in April to steer clear of bookies after his alleged betting activities came to the notice of ACSU. However, he allegedly continued to place bets and shared the information about the warning with Vindu Dara Singh, police said. But Terry’s name did not figure in the intercepted conversations between Gurunath and Vindu.
    Some television channels said that the transcripts spoke about spot-fixing and the number of runs to be scored in a particular over. But crime branch officials denied this. “Over the phone, Gurunath and Vindu mainly discussed money to be placed as bets. They spoke about placing bets in the range of Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh on various teams. There was no talk of either spot-fixing or match-fixing,”’ the official said.

SECRET WARNING?
In April, an official named Terry from ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit warns Guru to steer clear of betting
Guru continues betting and shares warning info with Vindu
Mumbai police surprised that ICC official spoke directly to Guru instead of alerting BCCI
Board denies getting any such input from ICC
Cops say Srinivasan probably unaware of ICC warning to son-in-law Guru’s no. in bookie Vyas’s call log
Vindu was in regular touch with bookie Ramesh Vyas who facilitated conference calls between India and Pakistan bookies. Police found that Gurunath’s number figured in the call log records. Vyas is under arrest and his bail application will be heard on Saturday. Police said Gurunath’s father-in-law and BCCI president N Srinivasan was probably unaware about the warning. “There is nothing to indicate that he knew about his son-in-law’s activities. At this stage we do not intend to question Srinivasan. The focus of our case is betting where Gurunath is an accused,’’ the official added.
Courtesy:
(With inputs from agencies)
C Unnikrishnan and S Ahmed Ali TNN
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=pastissues2&BaseHref=TOIM/2013/06/01&PageLabel=1&EntityId=Ar00102&ViewMode=HTML

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