The Delhi Police on Friday claimed that Rajasthan Royals (RR) cricketer Siddharth Trivedi will be a prosecution witness to strengthen the IPL spot-fixing case against team-mates Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan.
Investigators said that Trivedi was approached by bookies to commit spot-fixing in IPL 5 and 6, but he refused the offer.
“Bookies had tried contacting Trivedi and gave him gifts such as clothes and perfume. There were attempts to give him money. But he did not involve in spot-fixing. We also do not have intelligence that he performed an act that we can call cheating,” a police officer said.
The officer claimed that Trivedi is an “insider” and was in touch with “shady players” and bookies. Upon being asked if Trivedi had complained to his team management, after accepting gifts from bookies, the officer said, “He did not complaint to anyone”.
Investigators claimed that they had the option of making Trivedi an accused or a prosecution witness in the case. “We made him a witness, because he has minimum involvement in the case and would also reveal more information.
Even if we made him an accused, we will not be able to sustain the charges against him,” the officer added.
The police questioned Trivedi on Thursday. He was named during Chandila’s interrogation. Trivedi was presented before a Delhi court on Friday, where he recorded his statement under Section 164 of the CrPc. During interrogation, Trivedi allegedly named Sreesanth, but investigators did not share the details. Besides playing in the IPL, Trivedi also represents Gujarat in the Ranji Trophy and works for Air India. Trivedi has been playing for RR since 2008. In September 2010, Trivedi and Chandila played in the J P Atre Tournament in Chandigarh. It was here that bookies, including those arrested – Deepak Kumar and Amit Singh–approached Trivedi.
Another arrested bookie, Sunil Bhatia, had also approached him. These are the bookies who were also in touch with the three arrested cricketers. In 2012, Trivedi had recommended Chandila to RR. According to police sources, the team was in need of a spinner and a left-arm bowler.
Investigators had earlier said that some arrested bookies, namely Chandresh Patel, Manan and Amit, had asked Chandila to invite three Rajasthan Royals players, including Trivedi to a party in Jaipur on April 8. The purpose was to seal a deal to commit spot-fixing, but the players did not turn-up.
“Chandila had also tried persuading Trivedi to commit spot-fixing. He had asked him to concede runs and do as the bookies say. But Trivedi didn’t accept the deal,” sources added.
