New Delhi: Saturday turned out to be lucky for India’s former pacestar S Sreesanth and former IPL players Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, as Delhi Court dropped all charges against the trio in the 2013 IPL spot-fixing case.
Besides the 16 arrested, 20 others including the three Rajasthan Royals were also discharged in the case.
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“No regrets, no complaints against anybody. God-willing will return to cricket. I just want to play cricket,” Sreesanth said, after the verdict was out.
“I am a cricketer first, will always keep playing. Hopefully, BCCI allows me to use their facilities again,” he added.
“I will make sure I am fully fit and bowl those outswingers again. I would like to thank my lovely daughter, wife and parents for their support,” Sreesanth told media outside the court in New Delhi.
Meanwhile, the entire case has been dropped due to lack of evidence.
“I feel relieved. It was one of the worst phase of my life, but I had complete faith in the judicial system and the supreme power above. I will be able to sleep as a relieved man now. I hope BCCI will now allow me to continue playing for India,” said Chandila after the verdict.
On May 16, 2013, the Special Cell of Delhi Police carried out raids in Mumbai and arrested three Rajasthan Royals players – Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan – on charges of spot-fixing. The special cell had named 42 accused in its charge-sheet.
On September 14 the same year, in its hearing, the BCCI Disciplinary Committee comprising N Srinivasan, Arun Jaitley and Niranjan Shah passed the order to slap bans on the players based on the evidence on record.
S Sreesanth and Ankeet Chavan were banned for life while handing out five-year and one-year bans to Amit Singh and Siddarth Trivedi. Rajasthan Royals’ player-cum-bookie Amit Singh was also banned for a period of five years.
Earlier, speaking to ANI ahead of pronouncement of the order, former Rajasthan Royals cricketer Chandila said, “I had never seen such bad times before. I believe that my bad time is over, I am sure justice will prevailâ€
Additional Sessions Judge Neena Bansal Krishna had on May 23 reserved the order on framing of charges in the case for June 29 and asked the counsel appearing for the accused to file their written arguments, if any, by June 6.
During the arguments on framing of charges in the case, the police had referred to telephonic conversations among the accused to buttress their claim that they were involved in match fixing and betting.
It had also alleged that call detail records clearly reflect the linkage of accused persons who were part of a crime syndicate to generate money.
Meanwhile, the advocates representing the accused had countered the police’s submissions contending that the probe had failed to show commission of any prima facie offence by their clients.
The defence counsel had also argued that there was prima facie no evidence to frame charges in the case.
However, Saturday’s verdict leaves a question mark on the judgment of that committee.
(With inputs from agencies)