IPL scam: Mumbai police reject CSK CEO's plea for more time

The Mumbai Police today rejected Chennai Super Kings team chief executive Gurunath Meiyappan's plea to delay this appearance before them for questioning in connection with the spot-fixing scam that has hit the Indian Premier League cricket tournament.

Police said he must appear for questioning by 5 pm today.

On Thursday, Meiyappan had sought time till Monday, apparently because he wanted to be spared from making a personal appearance before the T20 final encounter on Sunday, in which his team has already earned a place.

Earlier on Thursday, a crime branch team had issued summons to Meiyappan asking him to appear before today after he was found to be in "frequent touch" with B-list actor Vindoo Randhawa, son of late wrestler-actor Dara Singh, arrested in connection with the scandal.

Since Meiyappan was not available in Chennai, the summons was pasted at his residence and a copy delivered to the CSK office. At present his exact whereabouts are uncertain.

Meanwhile, Arun Jaitley, chief of the Board for Control of Cricket in India's disciplinary committee, met IPL chief executive Rajeev Shukla; and the two subsequently met union law minister Kapil Sibal and asked him to bring a strong law against result-fixing in cricket.

An alleged cricket bookie was nabbed from the international airport in Hyderabad by a Delhi Police team in the early hours today.

"One person identified as Yahya Mohammad has been picked up from the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in connection with the cricket betting racket by the Delhi Police team in the wee hours," a senior police official said.

Mumbai Police sources now say the Chennai Super Kings CEO Meiyappan, son-in-law of BCCI chief N Srinivasan, started placing bets on IPL matches in 2011. Sources say actor Vindoo's interrogation has revealed that Gurunath started with bets of Rs10 lakh that went up to Rs1 crore per match.

They say Gurunath placed bets on three CSK matches this season and also placed bets on other games.

The Delhi Police has made it clear that no foreign player is involved in the spot-fixing scandal. "No foreign player's name has come up in our investigation," Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar said. He said 12 bookies and three players - S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan - have been arrested so far in the case.

With the focus now on Meiyappan, pressure is also growing on BCCI chief N Srinivasan to either step down or come clean in this apparent conflict of interest.

Meanwhile, the turf battle between the Delhi and Mumbai Police in the investigation again came to the fore after the Mumbai Police turned down a written request from their Delhi counterparts asking that evidence collected from Sreesanth's hotel room be handed over to them. The Mumbai Police declined, saying it was part of their probe in the arrest of bookie Ramesh Vyas.

The Delhi Police are known to be none too happy about Mumbai Police horning in on a case that they broke.