IPL 2025 | BCCI warns players, franchise owners against Hyderabad-based businessman with 'dubious credentials': Report

The individual apparently lures his potential victims using expensive gifts and invites them to private parties. He has been seen at team hotels as well as during matches.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India's Anti-Corruption Unit has issued a warning to all franchises, owners, and players of the Indian Premier League (IPL) to steer clear of a Hyderabad-based businessman who has made attempts to make contacts with participants in the cash-rich league in order to indulge them in illegal activities, as per a report by Cricbuzz.

All participants have been instructed to report to the board if the businessman of 'dubious credentials' makes contact with them or if they have had interacted with him in the past.

The BCCI's Anti-Corruption Security Unit (ACSU) believes said person has links to bookies and punters, and has past records of being involved in corrupt practices.

The individual apparently lures his potential victims using expensive gifts and invites them to private parties. He has been seen at team hotels as well as during the matches when he attempted to befriend players and members of the franchises' staff. He has also reportedly offered gifts to family members of certain players.

His modus operandi involves approaching family members of people involved in the league like coaches, staff, players as well as franchise owners, and then offering to take them to jewellery stores or high-end hotels. The report states that there have been indications of him trying to contact relatives of people involved in the IPL living abroad through social media.

In other news, Chhattisgarh police have arrested 14 persons from several states for allegedly accepting bets on the ongoing IPL matches through Mahadev betting app, an official told news agency PTI.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is already investigating the Mahadev app betting scam in Chhattisgarh.

Of the 14 arrested, six hail from Chhattisgarh, three from Jharkhand, two from Madhya Pradesh and one each from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Raipur Range Inspector General of Police Amresh Mishra said on Wednesday.

Eight of them were nabbed from Kolkata and six from Guwahati, he said. They were apprehended based on a statement of one Nikhil Wadhwani, who was arrested on April 13, for accepting online bets on IPL matches, the official said.

With PTI inputs