Wrist bands, neck chains, towels used as signals to bookies

After the arrest of cricketers S Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan of Rajasthan Royals, and 11 bookies and conduits, police said the modus operandi for spot-fixing was by asking bowlers to give pre-decided signals.

Accessories like wrist watches, wrist bands, neck chains and towels were used to give signals to the bookies at the time of starting their over.
“The bowlers were asked to concede at least a given number of runs in a pre-determined and mutually decided over. After receipt of the signal from the bowler, the bookies would bet heavily and make huge profits,” Delhi Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar said.

The players were involved in spot-fixing in three different IPL matches this month. “Our teams were monitoring activities of these players and also kept an eye on the venues of the matches to catch them red-handed,” Kumar said.

The commissioner said Chandila was involved in spot-fixing on May 5 at Jaipur during the game against Pune Warriors. In this match, as already agreed upon, Chandila gave 14 runs in the second over of his spell.

However, he forgot to give the pre-determined signal and as a result bookies could not bet in this match. This led to a lot of arguments and demand for return of money given in advance to Chandila. He was told to signal by pulling up his T-shirt twice during his second spell.

S Sreesanth was involved in spot-fixing on May 9 at Mohali during the match against King’s XI Punjab. In this match, it was decided that Sreesanth will tuck a towel on his trousers before bowling the second over of his spell, and also give enough time to bookies to indulge in heavy betting. As decided, S Sreesanth bowled the first over without wearing the towel.

“In the second over, he put a towel on his trouser and then in order to give bookies the required time, he warmed up and did some  exercises. In this over, he gave 13 runs,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (special cell) Sanjeev Yadav said.

Both Chandila and S Sreesanth were given Rs 40 lakh for underperforming during those overs.

Ankeet was caught after he was found underperforming during the game against Mumbai Indians in Mumbai on Tuesday.

The police said Chandila forced Ankeet into taking Rs 60 lakh for one over and perform as per the direction of the bookies. He was asked to give 13 or more runs in the second over of his spell.

He gave two runs in his first over and in his second over he was hit for a six on the first ball, two runs on the second ball and another six on the third ball. After this he controlled his bowling and gave one more run in the remaining three balls. “In all, he gave 15 runs in his second over,” Yadav said. Thereafter, police officers, who kept tabs on the activities of bookies and players, were asked to nab them.

A team of the Delhi Police camping in Mumbai conducted simultaneous raids after the match and arrested S Sreesanth, Chandila, Ankeet, bookies Chandresh Patel and Manan, and conduits Amit Kumar and Jiju Janardhan in Mumbai.

Meanwhile, another team of the special cell carried out arrest of bookies Deepak Kumar, Rakesh and five others stationed in Delhi and Gurgaon.