JOIN USSrini, Kundra, Meiyappan named in Mudgal report
The Supreme Court on Friday named ICC Chairman N Srinivasan, his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan, Rajasthan Royals co-owner Raj Kundra and cricket administrator Sundararaman, along with three cricketers, who were accused of “misdemeanour” by the Mudgal panel, that probed betting and spot fixing in the 2013 edition of Indian Premier League.
A bench of Justices T S Thakur and F M I Kalifullah sought response from the four accused to the charges emerging from the findings of the panel, putting a question mark on the latter’s association with the sport.
Reading out the report, the bench also disclosed the names of the three cricketers indicted in the report but asked the media not to identify them. The court said: “We have seen the report which suggests some misdemeanour by certain people. The report is in relation to players and to other actors in the drama.” But so far as players’ names are concerned, they should be held back for now, the court said. It directed supply of a copy of the report by the panel, headed by former chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice Mukul Mudgal, to Srinivasan and three others seeking their response within four days.
The court, however, directed blacking out the names of players, wherever they were mentioned in the report, in order to conceal their identity.
The court nudged BCCI counsel C A Sundaram to postpone the board’s elections scheduled for November 20 during the annual general meeting.
“We have not stopped your elections. You yourself postponed it to November 20 from September. Unless we address the issues raised in Mudgal report, we cannot say anything on the point or the question of holding election,” the bench said.The court posted the matter for further hearing on November 24. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Srinivasan, submitted that they would like to first see the report before taking any stand on the findings.
The BCCI counsel, however, urged the court to pass an order against publishing the names of two cricketers.“We can't restrain the media but we hope that it will act responsibly,” the bench said. The court also issued notice to Meiyappan and Sundararaman as the two were not represented before it and sought their response within four days.
The panel had submitted its 35-page report to the court on November 3. The court had on September 1 granted two months’ extension to the panel to complete the probe and refused to allow a plea by Srinivasan for reinstatement as BCCI chief.
On May 16, the apex court gave a fresh mandate to the committee, also comprising senior advocate L N Rao and advocate Nilay Dutta, to investigate allegations of corruption against the ousted BCCI president and 12 players during the probe into betting and spot fixing in the IPL-6. It had appointed Assam-Meghalaya cadre IPS officer B B Mishra, along with other police officers from Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi. The court had rejected BCCI’s proposal to have the probe conducted by its own panel.