A
secret report given to the Supreme Court by the Justice Mukul Mudgal committee
investigating cricket fixing contains a statement from a Tamil Nadu cop that
names Team India captain MS Dhoni.
Superintendent
of Police G Sampath Kumar's statement to the committee cites a bookie named
Kitty who claims that the Indian captain and Gurunath Meiyappan, son-in-law of
BCCI President N Srinivasan, were part of a "deal" that involved
fixing in the Indian Premier League.
Kumar
confirmed the contents of the statement to HT, saying that he had given the
committee a signed statement about an investigation he had conducted last year
when he was part of the state police’s internal security division.
“We were investigating a fake passport case
when we came across information related to betting. We interrogated a man
called Kitty, who talked about Dhoni and Meiyappan,” he said.
He
cautioned that he had recommended further investigation, adding that he had
been transferred out of the internal security branch soon after interrogating
Kitty. He is currently posted as SP, Railways, Thiruchirapally.
"The
sealed cover contains unverified information that we wanted to share with the
court only and contains statements of people who wanted to stay
anonymous," Justice Mudgal said when contacted by HT. When asked
specifically about Kumar's statement, he said, "“I cannot say anything
about a matter that is confidential."
Arun
Pandey, owner Rhiti Sports and Dhoni's agent said, "I haven't seen the
report yet. The matter is subjudice and scheduled for hearing in Supreme Court
on March 7, so till then I would like to request people to refrain from
speculating."
An
angry Meiyappan told HT: "You are firing empties in an ocean. You first
come with evidence."
Interestingly,
Nilay Dutta, one of the three members of the Mudgal committee, had in his
supplementary report confirmed part of Sampath’s deposition but omitted Dhoni’s
name.
Dutta's
report says: "It is in the record of the Committee, through the deposition
of Mr. G Sampath Kumar… (that), one Mr Utham Jain @ Kitty had been interrogated
by Q branch in his presence and the said Kitty had disclosed, in course of his
interrogation on 23.05.2013, that pursuant to a plan to fix the match between
IPL teams, Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, scheduled on 12.05.2013,
he was informed by one Mr Vikram Agarwal on 27.04.2013 at a dinner party that a
deal had been worked out."
"He
was also informed the same day by Mr. Gurunath Meiyappan that one senior member
in the IPL team, Chennai Super Kings, had agreed to play as per plan and the
team will score 140 runs. This plan was communicated to one Sanjay in Jaipur
over phone by Mr Vikram Agarwal in presence of Kitty."
The
Dutta report says the committee was told that all officers who knew about
Kitty's disclosures were transferred out and that the matter had been referred
to Crime Branch CID Chennai police, but adds that the interrogation report of
Kitty was not available in their records. Officers from the internal security
branch where Sampath worked promised to revert to the committee with a file but
did not, the report says.
"The
Committee is not in a position therefore to ascertain whether the interrogation
report of Kitty as stated by Mr G Sampath Kumar in fact exists," Dutta
says in his report.
Dutta
told HT: “The matter is with the Supreme Court now. I can only say that the
Chennai police officers did not come back with the file containing Kitty’s
statement.”
