Cricketer S Sreesanth and other accused after being produced at Saket court in New Delhi on Tuesday in connection with IPL spot-fixing case. (PTI)

Delhi Police today brought the angle of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in the IPL spot-fixing scandal in a Delhi court which sent suspended cricketer S Sreesanth to Tihar jail rejecting police’s plea for his remand for two more days.

During the course of arguments in remand proceedings, senior public prosecutor Rajiv Mohan told the court that interception of various calls suggested that several big names may be involved in the episode as calls were made to Dawood.

The police said there are some missing links and they are working on it.

“We are missing the link of the whole episode which will be proved very soon,” the prosecutor said, adding, “Some big names are also involved which I cannot disclose at this stage and they were in regular contact with D company.”

Delhi Police had sought extension of Sreesanth’s police custody on the ground that immediately after his arrest in Mumbai, co-accused Jiju Janaradhan had offered one of their common friends Abhishek Shukla Rs 2 lakh to clean the cricketer’s hotel room.

However, the court was not impressed with this submission of the police for the police remand of Sreesanth, who has already spent 12 days in its custody.

It pulled up the investigators for not showing any fresh ground to take the custody of Sreesanth, saying as to why he should be handed to “your hospitality” for two days.

“Accused Sreesanth cannot be held liable for the acts which had taken place at his back and therefore instead of making deep investigation of Abhishek Shukla on this aspect, I am of the considered opinion that it would amount to miscarriage of judicial procedure if police custody remand of Sreesanth is further extended,” Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Lokesh Kumar Sharma said.

Sreesanth was remanded in judicial custody till June 4, when his bail application will come up for hearing.

Besides Sreesanth, the court has also sent his teammate Ajit Chandila, bookies Ashwani Aggarwal and Chandresh Patel to Tihar jail till June 4, after the police said that their custodial interrogation was complete.

During the arguments for extension of Sreesanth’s custody, Additional Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan had said he was required for confrontation with Shukla, who had joined the probe today, and for recovery of money.

He had also said certain electronic gadgets might have also been removed by Shukla from his hotel room.

The court, however, said, “There is nothing on record to corroborate this fact and submission of the prosecution appear to be based on mere probabilities…”

Senior advocate Rebecca John, appearing for Sreesanth, had opposed the plea for police custody saying it is completely unjustified after he being interrogated in its custody for 12 days. She said the grounds of police custody are “so completely untenable”.

She also said the police theory that some articles were removed from Sreesanth’s hotel room was also untenable as the room was unattended for three days and it was Mumbai Police which had later recovered a laptop from his room.

Meanwhile, the court directed the Tihar Jail authorities to produce accused Ashwini before a Mumbai court, which had issued production warrant against him. It also said that he should be brought back before June 4.
Sources : http://newindianexpress.com/nation/Delhi-Police-bring-Dawood-angle-in-IPL-scandal/2013/05/28/article1609923.ece