On 16th May 2013, the Special Cell of Delhi Police carried out raids in Mumbai and arrested three Rajasthan Royals players, S. Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, on charges of spot-fixing. The special cell had named 42 accused in its charge-sheet. The police, as arguments for framing the charges, referred to telephonic conversations between the players and the bookies to establish their betting and match-fixing charges. The court had earlier declared underworld don, Dawood Ibrahim and his aide, Chota Shakeel as offenders as they were evading arrest in the matter.
Today, on 25th July 2015, the Patiala House Court in New Delhi dropped the case and discharged Sreesanth and 41 others from the case due to lack of evidence.
Sreesanth was visibly overwhelmed by the verdict as he had tears in his eyes after the declaration. He told NDTV, “No regrets, no complains against anybody, god-willing I will return to cricket. Hopefully, I can take permission from BCCI to use their facilities again and regain fitness. I know I have got movie offers but I am a cricketer first. I went through a lot. That’s all in the past. I would love to go to the national stadium tomorrow and just run there. I will make sure I am fully fit and bowl those outswingers again.”
Only earlier this month, a Supreme Court appointed Lodha committee suspended Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royal for two years on betting charges and the team owners, Gurunath Meiyappan(Chennai) and Raj Kundra(Rajasthan) were banned for life from cricketing activities.
News Courtesy: NDTV
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