Supreme Court refuses to grant BCCI access to audio recordings of Srini and Dhoni's depositions before Mudgal committee

April 12, 2014

Supreme_BCCINew Delhi, Apr 12: The BCCI on Friday suffered a major blow ahead of the crucial hearing in the IPL betting-fixing case on April 16, with Supreme Court refusing to direct justice Mukul Mudgal committee to hand over to it audio tapes of depositions of India captain MS Dhoni and Board president N Srinivasan.

BCCI lawyer Aryama Sundaram vehemently argued before a bench of justice AK Patnaik and JS Khehar that they desperately needed the tapes before the hearing on April 16 when the court will continue hearing on plea for action against Srinivasan and Dhoni for their alleged involvement in the bettingfixing and further scrutinise their roles.

"We needed the audio recordings to prepare ourselves before the hearing on April 16. Only then we can satisfy your lordships regarding various aspects raised by opposite parties in the court and also to answer the questions which will be asked by the bench," Sundaram told the bench.

But Justice Patnaik retorted: "We will take up the plea on April 16 and if we feel that you need the tapes for your defence we shall adjourn the hearing by a day or two. At present we are not inclined to entertain the plea."

When BCCI sought the tapes, the lawyer of Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB) secretary Aditya Verma submitted that the Board cannot seek copies of the transcripts on behalf of Srinivasan and Dhoni.

"How does the BCCI have the locus standi to ask for the tapes on the behalf of Srinivasan and Dhoni," Verma's lawyer Ajeet Sinha told the court.

He submitted that if the transcripts are supplied to BCCI then those should also be given to the CAB. BCCI had also sought the transcripts of statements by Sundar Raman, the Chief Operating Officer of IPL.

The bench had on the previous date of hearing on March 27 directed Srinivasan to keep away from the affairs of the BCCI till investigations against him was over and appointed former captain Sunil Gavaskar as the working president for IPL.

Former Test player Shivlal Yadav has been asked to look after the other affairs of the Board. It is to be noted that the Mudgal panel which probed into the spot fixing and betting in last year's edition of IPL stated: "MS Dhoni, N Srinivasan and officials of India Cements took the stand that Mr. Meiyappan [son in law of Srinivasan] had nothing to do with the cricketing affairs of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and was a mere "cricket enthusiast" supporting CSK."

It is these very comments that the BCCI wanted to verify from the tapes.

The panel which went deep into the malice of fixing and betting issues found that Meiyappan had placed bets, which was an offence as a team official had shared confidential information.

The court had said the panel was right in terming as "serious" the questions being raised on conflict of interest in Srinivasan being the BCCI president and CEO of India Cements when his son-inlaw Meiyappan is under a cloud.

Dhoni's name had cropped up for the first time on March 27.

Senior lawyer Harish Salve who represented petitioner Verma, the petitioner in the case who demanded a probe into the scandal argued that Dhoni was "corrupt" as he indulged in "cover up" and "gave false statement" before the Mudgal committee regarding the role of Meiyappan with the CSK.

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News Network
April 24,2020

New Delhi, Apr 24: Veteran off-spinner Harbhajan Singh said he doesn't think Mahendra Singh Dhoni will play for India again, adding to the guessing game over the future of the superstar former captain.

Dhoni, 38, has not appeared for club or country since last year's 50-over World Cup and India's coronavirus lockdown could threaten his chances of getting back into the national team.

The Indian Premier League, the main platform before this year's scheduled T20 World Cup, is likely to be truncated or cancelled because of the pandemic.

Harbhajan, who plays with Dhoni at IPL side Chennai Super Kings, said international retirement was on the cards for Dhoni and that he was increasingly being asked about his teammate.

"It's up to him. You need to know whether he wants to play for India again," Harbhajan said in an online forum.

"As far as I know him, he won't want to wear India's blue jersey again. IPL he will play, but for India I think he had decided the (2019) World Cup was his last."

Dhoni, who gave up Test cricket in 2014, started training for the Super Kings in March but has not commented on his international future.

Dhoni led India to win the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in 2007. He hit a six to seal the 2011 World Cup final victory and, along with it, his status as a national hero. He has amassed 10,773 runs from 350 ODIs.

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June 24,2020

New Delhi, Jun 24: Star Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan deeply regrets his "silly mistake" of not reporting a corrupt approach by an Indian bookie to the ICC, leading to his one year suspension from the game.

Shakib was banned for two years, one year of it suspended, for failing to report corrupt approaches during an IPL edition by an alleged Indian bookie named Deepak Aggarwal.

"I took the approaches too casually When I met the anti-corruption guy and told them and they knew everything. Gave them all the evidence and they knew everything that happened," Shakib told Harsha Bhogle on 'Cricbuzz in Conversation'.

"To be honest, that's the only reason I was banned for a year, otherwise I'd have been banned for five or 10 years," he added on the ICC's investigation.

The 33-year-old, who was in brilliant form before the ban, amassing 606 runs in the 2019 World Cup in the UK, said he regrets how he went about the situation.

"But I think that was a silly mistake I made. Because with my experience and the amount of international matches I've played and the amount of ICC's anti-corruption code of conduct classes I took, I shouldn't have made that decision, to be honest."

Lesson learnt, Shakib's advice to all young criceters is to never take any such message lightly.

"I regret that. No one should take such messages or calls (from bookies) lightly or leave it away. We must inform the ICC ACSU guy to be on the safe side and that's the lesson I learnt, and I think I learnt a big lesson," he added.

The all-rounder, whose ban ends on October 29, said he became a bit arrogant and never felt he was doing anything wrong by not reporting the bookie's approach immediately.

"Because you do most things right in your life, you tend to get arrogant with some decisions. You may not realise but you're doing wrong by the books. It never came to my mind that I am doing something wrong

"It was just a feeling of 'okay, what's going to happen, leave it' and I continued with my life. But that's the mistake I made. And that happens," Shakib said.

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February 5,2020

New Delhi, Feb 5: IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) has denied any financial dealings with the controversial Rose Valley Group except for it being a sponsor of the side's official jerseys in 2012 and 2013.

KKR issued the clarification after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached Rose Valley's assets worth over Rs 70 crore on Monday. The attached assets include Rs 11.87 crore bank deposits of Knight Riders Sports Pvt Ltd, that owns KKR, in connection with a money laundering probe.

The franchise said it hopes for the matter to be resolved expeditiously.

"Rose Valley Hotels was one of KKR's IPL jersey sponsors for IPL seasons 2012 and 2013. Rose Valley had paid KKR an approx. amount of Rs 11.87 crore as sponsorship fees," KKR CEO Venky Mysore said in a statement.

"KKR had no other dealings with the Rose Valley Group including Rose Valley’s micro finance business," he added.

The statement added that in July last year, KRSPL (Knight Riders Sports Pvt Ltd), received a "witness summon" from the ED in connection with an investigation relating to the Rose Valley Group, particularly its micro finance business.

"The ED continues the investigation of Rose Valley. KKR continues to cooperate with the authorities in all respects," Mysore said.

"As part of the investigative process, sometime in October 2019, the ED placed a lien on the said amount earlier paid by Rose Valley to KKR," he asserted.

The directors of KRSPL include Shah Rukh Khan's wife Gauri Khan, actor Juhi Chawla's husband Jay Mehta, Mysore and two others.

Mysore was questioned in this case by ED's Kolkata office in October last year.

Apart from KRSPL, the ED attached properties of two other entities -- Multiple Resorts Pvt. Ltd. and Kolkata's St Xavier's College on Monday.

The ED registered an FIR against the Rose Valley group, its chairman Gautam Kundu and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in 2014.

Kundu was arrested by the agency in Kolkata in 2015 and is in judicial custody at present.

The ED has filed multiple charge sheets in Kolkata and Bhubaneswar courts in this connection and total attachments are now worth Rs 4,750 crore.

The group has been charged by the ED and the CBI with "illegally and fraudulently collecting deposits from public with the intention to cheat them by falsely promising high returns on their investment", thereby perpetrating a ponzi-like fraud.

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