⚖️ IPL spot-fixing case: CSK, Rajasthan Royals suspended 2 years
Lodha panel suspended both teams in 2015; a Delhi court discharged the players and police appealed. Appeal outcome unconfirmed. ⏳
By MrMuscles, sports desk · Desk editor Gustavs Ērkšķis-Kreicbergs · · 6 min read
RULEDPhoto: Harrias · CC BY-SA 3.0What we know
- A Supreme Court-appointed committee headed by Justice R M Lodha suspended the owners of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals for two years on 14 July 2015, Times of India/PTI reported.
- The BCCI's disciplinary committee banned S. Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan for life on 13 September 2013; Amit Singh got five years and Siddharth Trivedi one year, The Hindu reported.
- A Delhi court discharged all 36 accused on 25 July 2015, PTI reported; The Hindu reported that Delhi Police appealed and the Delhi High Court issued notices on 18 November 2015.
- The Supreme Court set aside Sreesanth's life ban on 15 March 2019 and sent the length of the sanction back to the BCCI, Indian Express reported.
The IPL trade window has produced its headline number: the Free Press Journal reports that Hardik Pandya moves to Punjab Kings for ₹18 crore, up from ₹16.35 crore, while Arshdeep Singh joins Mumbai Indians at his existing ₹18 crore. Big cheques, big noise. The league's heaviest legal record is older, smaller in rupees and far longer in paperwork: the 2013 spot-fixing case.
MrMuscles has pulled the scoreboard from the documents on record. Who got what, and which body decided it, is below.
| Who | Decided by | Outcome on record | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chennai Super Kings (owner India Cements) | Lodha committee, appointed by the Supreme Court | Suspended from the IPL for two years | 14 Jul 2015 |
| Rajasthan Royals (owner Jaipur IPL) | Lodha committee | Suspended from the IPL for two years | 14 Jul 2015 |
| Gurunath Meiyappan, former CSK team principal | Lodha committee | Suspended for life from cricket | 14 Jul 2015 |
| Raj Kundra, Royals co-owner | Lodha committee | Suspended for life from cricket | 14 Jul 2015 |
| S. Sreesanth | BCCI disciplinary committee | Life ban; Supreme Court set aside the sanction on 15 Mar 2019, BCCI to reconsider its length | 13 Sep 2013 |
| Ankeet Chavan | BCCI disciplinary committee | Life ban | 13 Sep 2013 |
| Amit Singh | BCCI disciplinary committee | Five-year ban | 13 Sep 2013 |
| Siddharth Trivedi | BCCI disciplinary committee | One-year ban | 13 Sep 2013 |
| Ajit Chandila | BCCI disciplinary committee | Life ban | Jan 2016 |
| Hiken Shah | BCCI disciplinary committee | Five-year ban | Jan 2016 |
The timeline
May 2013: the arrests
Delhi Police arrested Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, then of Rajasthan Royals, along with 26 others in May 2013, The Hindu reported. Police made the arrests on the basis of recorded phone conversations that, they said, suggested Sreesanth had conceded a set number of runs for money from bookies. In June a court granted bail to Sreesanth, Chavan and 19 others, citing lack of evidence to try them under MCOCA, Maharashtra's organized-crime law.
See the receipt (opens in a new tab)24 May 2013: the franchise official
Mumbai Police arrested Gurunath Meiyappan on charges of cheating, forgery and fraud, ESPNcricinfo reported, after questioning him over betting and links to bookies. His lawyer PS Raman said: “We are exploring all legal possibilities.” His Twitter handle said “team principal”; India Cements, the franchise owner, said he was only an honorary member of team management. BCCI president N Srinivasan, his father-in-law, told NDTV: “I have done nothing wrong.”
See the receipt (opens in a new tab)13 September 2013: the first bans
The BCCI's disciplinary committee banned Sreesanth and Chavan for life, The Hindu reported, for involvement in spot-fixing in certain IPL matches. Amit Singh received five years, Trivedi one year, and Harmeet Singh was let off for lack of evidence. All four players punished belonged to Rajasthan Royals. Sreesanth denied involvement in his reply to the board's show-cause notice, according to the Supreme Court's 2019 judgment.
See the receipt (opens in a new tab)14 July 2015: both franchises suspended
The Lodha committee suspended India Cements and Jaipur IPL, the owners of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, for two years, Times of India/PTI reported. It also suspended Meiyappan and Royals co-owner Raj Kundra for life from cricket, and Justice Lodha said: “No aspect touching criminal liability has been decided by us.” Kundra tweeted, per ESPNcricinfo: “Many inaccuracies...Have requested for a copy of the judgement.” BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya said the board was “committed to honour and respect judicial decisions”.
See the receipt (opens in a new tab)"Disrepute has been brought to cricket, the BCCI and the IPL to such an extent that there are doubts abound in the public whether the game is clean or not"
Justice R M Lodha, quoted by Times of India/PTI, 14 July 2015
The owners had their say. India Cements argued it had done a lot to grow the game, and Justice Lodha replied that this could not mitigate the punishment because the franchise owners did not act against Meiyappan, per Times of India/PTI. Jaipur IPL described itself as a nursery of players; Justice Lodha pointed to three of its players accused of spot-fixing. ESPNcricinfo reported that the initial sense was that both franchises would appeal. Whether either did is not in the documents read.
25 July 2015: the criminal case collapses
A Delhi court discharged all 36 accused, including Sreesanth, Chandila and Chavan, PTI reported, with Additional Sessions Judge Neena Bansal Krishna saying: “All are discharged.” The court found no prima facie case under MCOCA or any other penal statute, Indian Express reported, and called the Sreesanth-Janardhan conversations “innocuous”. Six accused, including Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel, were declared proclaimed offenders, and police had filed a 6,000-page chargesheet naming 42. Sreesanth told the Indian Express: “Today I have come out clean.”
See the receipt (opens in a new tab)18 November 2015: police appeal
The Delhi High Court issued notices to Sreesanth, Chandila, Chavan and 33 others on a Delhi Police appeal against the discharge, The Hindu reported. Police argued the trial court had “erroneously interpreted” the law on MCOCA. Justice Siddharth Mridul sought replies by 16 December. The outcome of that appeal is not in the documents read.
See the receipt (opens in a new tab)January 2016: Chandila banned for life
The BCCI banned Ajit Chandila for life, finding him “guilty of misconduct and corruption” under seven articles of its anti-corruption code, The Hindu reported. It also banned Mumbai batsman Hiken Shah for five years over a corrupt approach to a teammate. The Hindu reported that the criminal court's discharge had no bearing on the board's decision. Chandila's lawyer Rakesh Kumar told The Hindu they would ask the board for a review and, failing that, consider legal recourse.
See the receipt (opens in a new tab)15 March 2019: Supreme Court on Sreesanth
The Supreme Court set aside Sreesanth's life ban but only the sanction, Indian Express reported: the bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and K M Joseph said there were “no grounds for this Court to take a different view” on the BCCI finding him guilty under its code. It said the disciplinary committee had not weighed aggravating and mitigating factors, and asked the board to reconsider, “preferably within a period of three months”. The court said its ruling had no effect on the criminal appeal then pending against the discharge. Sreesanth told ESPNcricinfo: “The Supreme Court has given me a lifeline.”
See the receipt (opens in a new tab)What the money looked like
ESPNcricinfo reported that the Supreme Court was told Sreesanth had agreed, in “exchange” for INR 10 lakh, to concede 14 or more runs in the second over of his spell against Kings XI Punjab on 9 May 2013, signalled by a hand towel. That is the allegation drawn from a taped conversation between his friend and an alleged bookie; Sreesanth denied any spot-fixing, and the Delhi court later discharged him. On the betting side, Times of India/PTI quoted Justice Lodha saying Meiyappan lost up to Rs 60 lakhs in bets: “It is his bad luck that he did not make money out of these bets.”
If you are keeping score: the record's figures are counted in lakhs, today's in crores (Indian counting units), and only one of those has been through the Supreme Court. The documents read stop at the 2019 ruling on Sreesanth's sanction, with the appeal against the discharge still pending at that point. What came after is not confirmed here.
The Hardik Pandya file
- Reported
Free Press Journal reported Pandya moves to Punjab Kings for ₹18 crore, from ₹16.35 crore. This story
On file: The Hardik Pandya file · The Board of Control for Cricket in India file · The Chennai Super Kings file · The Rajasthan Royals file · The S. Sreesanth file
The Ledger
On the record
- The Lodha committee's two-year suspensions and life bans (2015), the Delhi court's discharge of 36 accused (2015) and the Supreme Court's 2019 ruling on Sreesanth's sanction are all on record in the sources read.
Still rumour
- The result of Delhi Police's appeal against the discharge, and what the BCCI decided for Sreesanth after March 2019, are not confirmed in the documents read.
- Whether either franchise appealed the suspensions, and Meiyappan's own response to the 2015 ruling, are not in the documents read.
That's the record. The rest is rumour. - MrMuscles
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