Adding another twist to the tale, Delhi Police on Sunday revealed that S Sreesanth had plans to party all night with as many women as possible on May 15, says a report in Hindustan Times. Delhi Police claimed the cricketer was drunk and easily lured to Mumbai’s Trident hotel, where police had already arrested his bookie friend Jiju Janardhan.
“We nabbed Jiju first and sought his help in luring Sreesanth,” an investigating officer said Sunday. “Jiju was made to call and tell him to come to the Trident, so he could be introduced to a female friend.” Minutes later, Sreesanth arrived at the Trident with a “woman on his arm”.
Police also said that when Jiju called him, Sreesanth told him he was “resting at home”. But it turned out he had been at the InterContinental Hotel with his 'girlfriend'.
Meanwhile, according to a report in The Hindu, Kerala Cricket Association secretary T.C. Mathew on Sunday revealed that India pace-bowler S. Sreesanth was indeed very close to Jiju Janardanan. “Jiju was always around Sreesanth like a satellite. We used to see him around Sreesanth not only in Kerala but abroad also. When Sreesanth moves in the city he Jiju is always seen in his car. We thought, perhaps he is a close friend of Sreesanth. Being a Malayali, he is eligible to play for Kerala. That’s why, maybe, Sreesanth brought him here — to help him make it to the Ranji squad,” Mathew told a news channel.
Janardanan was among the 11 bookmakers arrested by the Delhi Police in connection with alleged spot-fixing in the Indian Premier League matches. “We never suspected his intentions. One thing people used to know about him was that he was always around Sreesanth,” said Mathew.
Meanwhile according to media reports, the net in the Indian Premier League spot-fixing scandal is widening each day. Police sources say the third day interrogation of the three cricketers accused of spot-fixing have revealed clear patterns of the murky deals that shamed Indian cricket.
“It now emerges that domestic and first class cricketers were allegedly acting as conduits for the top bookies and the players. After Jiju and Amit Singh, the Delhi Police claimed to have arrested a first class cricketer, Manish, and is on the look out for a former Railways player Baburao Yadav. Police also arrested two more bookies,” says a report in CNN-IBN.