Sreesanth in Tihar jail

Rejecting Delhi Police plea for two more days of custodial interrogation in connection with the IPL spot-fixing scandal case, a Delhi court on Tuesday sent cricketers Sreesanth and Ajit Chandila and two bookies to judicial custody.

Chief metropolitan magistrate Lokesh Kumar Sharma turned down the plea of Delhi Police’s Special Cell for the custody of Sreesanth, saying he cannot be held liable for what has happened at his back.

“How will you (investigators) establish that the removed articles belong to Sreesanth as anyone can plant to falsely implicate him,” the court said.

The court dismissed the bail plea of Rajasthan Royals player Ankeet Chavan.

During the course of arguments, senior public prosecutor Rajiv Mohan informed the court that interception of various calls suggested that several big names may be involved in the episode as calls were made to an underworld don. 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.”

While seeking custody of Sreesanth, the prosecutor told the court that Abhishek Shukla has joined investigation and he allegedly had cleaned the cricketer’s hotel room immediately after his arrest. — Agencies

He also said that Sreesanth has to be confronted with Shukla who might have removed the electronic gadgets and data kept in the cricketer’s room and at pacer’s instance Rs. 5 lakh have to be recovered as his friend Jiju Janardhan had taken Rs. 10 lakh on his behalf. —