IPL case: Bookie gets bail

An alleged bookie accused in the IPL spot fixing case, who surrendered on January 18, was granted bail by a court on Friday.

Additional Sessions Judge Dharmesh Sharma granted interim bail to Praveen Kumar Thakkar on the ground of parity till February 7 as the other accused in this case are on bail. According to police, Thakkar, 25, was involved in the case and was in touch, over telephone with Rajasthan Royals player Ajit Chandila and two other people regarding match-fixing in IPL’s 2013 edition.

Thakkar surrendered before a court, which sent him to police custody till January 24. He was presented in court on Friday after expiry of police custody and the police told the court that he was not required for further interrogation.

The formal set of charges, running into 6,000 pages, in the case were filed last year. The chargesheet named cricketers S Sreesanth, Chandila and Ankeet Chavan among the 39 accused in the scandal in the IPL’s sixth edition.

The accused have been charged with offences of cheating and conspiracy under sections of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). Sreesanth, Chandila and Chavan were arrested in May 2013 on the basis of phone conversations and footage of IPL matches in which they were caught giving predetermined signals to bookies.