A PIL was filed in the Madras High Court, seeking to restrain the BCCI from conducting the 11th edition of Indian Premier League in the absence of adequate measures to prevent match-fixing and betting.
IPS officer G Sampathkumar’s plea moved as public interest litigation (PIL) is likely to be heard by the first bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice A Selvam today.
In his petition, IPS officer G Sampathkumar claimed that he was instrumental in exposing the match fixing in 2013 edition of the IPL and has named all the eight teams including Chennai Super Kings as party respondents.
“Contrary to the Lodha Committee report, vested interests still continue to be protected in the IPL and the questions of conflict of interest remain unaddressed by the BCCI,” Sampathkumar said.
He also claimed that the BCCI had no measures put it to keep a tab on bookies, fixers and kingpins of illegal betting, nor has a database of such people. He also accused BCCI of not knowing the details of the earnings of their players or has any system of accountability in performance of its anti-corruption unit.
“The BCCI also do not have a preventive action or measure against a person committing the offence of sporting fraud in relation to a sport event like the IPL, where he directly manipulates or wilfully fails to perform to his true potential for economic or any other advantage,” he added.
The IPS officer said that he wants a preventive system put in place before the IPL 11 commences and doesn’t seek any ban on IPL. He wanted the court to pass an interim order restraining the BCCI from conducting the game without bringing in such measures.
In 2015, a panel appointed by the Supreme Court suspended Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals after finding them guilty in an illegal betting and match-fixing probe. Both franchises are back this season after serving the two-year ban.
(With PTI Inputs)
