Mumbai police intend to get Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf back to India by seeking issuance of Letters Rogatory following revelations about his alleged association with bookies involved in IPL betting scandal, city’s crime chief Himanshu Roy said in Mumbai on Tuesday.
“He (Rauf) has associated himself with bookies in a manner that brings him under suspicion and so we are proceeding against him… including issuing Letters Rogatory,” Roy, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), told reporters.
A Letters Rogatory is a formal request from a court to a foreign court for judicial assistance.
Rauf was said to have left India on May 21, the day actor Vindoo Randhawa was arrested for his alleged role in the betting scam.
Crime branch officials said that Rauf was “constantly in touch” with Vindoo and two absconding bookies – Sanjay and Pavan Jaipur.
Vindoo, according to crime branch, had facilitated the escape of Sanjay and Pawan to Dubai as bookies across the country faced the heat following the arrest of three Rajasthan Royals players including India pacer S Sreesanth for spot-fixing IPL matches.
A SIM card given to Rauf by Sanjay was destroyed at the instance of Vindoo before the actor’s arrest in the IPL betting case. Rauf used the SIM card during his stay in India over the last three years.
Crime branch sources said their team was searching the residence and offices of Vikram Agarwal, owner of Radisson Blu hotel in Chennai, who has emerged as a key link between bookies and Bollywood celebrities. He was said to have known Chennai Super Kings owner Gurunath Meiyappan, also arrested in the case, for the last 15 years and was close to Vindoo.
They said summons would be issued to Agarwal asking him to appear before them subsequent to his appearance before Chennai Police, who have called him for questioning on May 30. Chennai Police have already served summons asking him to appear before them on May 30.
Roy said Ashwin Agarwal alias Tinku Delhi, arrested by the special cell of Delhi Police, was likely to shed light on the Pakistani connection to the betting racket.
Mumbai police had yesterday secured a production warrant to bring Tinku, who was allegedly in contact with Pakistani bookies, here for interrogation.
Tinku, he said, would be brought face to face with Vindoo and Meiyappan, son-in law of BCCI chief N Srinivasan.
Meanwhile, Additional Metropolitan Magistrate A M Padwad today extended the crime branch custody of Vindoo, Alpesh Patel, a hawala operator, and Prem Taneja, a conduit for the bookies, under arrest in the betting case, till May 31.
Before his name surfaced in the IPL fixing scandal, Rauf had courted controversy when Mumbai-based model Leena Kapoor accused him of having sexually exploited her on several occasions with promise of marriage though the umpire denied the allegation.
Rauf was pulled out of the elite panel of umpires for the Champions Trophy by the ICC after his name surfaced in the IPL spot-fixing racket.
–PTI