Adding twist to the tale, in fresh trouble for Indian pacer Sreesanth, Mumbai Police's crime branch may book him in a spot-fixing case registered by it and seek his custodial interrogation, Joint Commissioner (Crime) Himanshu Roy said on Saturday.
According to a report in Mail Today, Roy said permission of a competent court has been secured for obtaining "mirror images" of a laptop computer, an i-pad and mobile phone seized from a room in a 5 star hotel in Bandra on Friday which the cricketer occupied before his arrest on Wednesday night.
“The crime branch had arrested three bookies - Ramesh Vyas (52), Pandurang Kadam (41) and Ashok Vyas (32)- a day before Sreesanth and two other members of IPL (Indian Premier League) team Rajasthan Royals were arrested in connection with the spot fixing scandal. Later, another bookie Pravin Behra was held Bhandup,” says the report
“As many as 92 mobile phones, out of which 32 were exclusively used to enable Indian punters get in touch with bookies in Dubai and Pakistan through teleconferencing, 18 SIM cards, a television set and a laptop had been seized from the trio,” Roy said.
According to a report in Indian Express, intercepts of phone conversations between bookies and players, revealed threats in the name of the underworld. "Strong words were used to threaten the players," an officer linked to the investigation said.
According to the officer, Sreesanth was paid Rs 10 lakh advance while Jiju Janardanan, fellow cricketer and friend who was allegedly in touch with the bookies, had also been paid Rs 10 lakh. The officer claimed that Sreesanth used Jiju's phone to speak to the bookies. Jiju had approached Sreesanth for an advertisement shoot and had persuaded him to agree to spot-fixing.
Sreesanth's close friends, including a former domestic cricket player, are also going to be questioned. The officer said that the travel, hotel stay and other expenses of Sreesanth's friends were financed by Jiju and Amit Singh who had played for Rajasthan Royals earlier and is among the 14 arrested.
Meanwhile according to news reports, for Sreesanth, it was two days of sleepless nights and no bath as the disgraced cricketer was not "comfortable" with the bathroom. Alone in the small cell of the Delhi Police, he mostly looks glum, depressed and breaks down often during questioning, police sources said on Saturday.
On the second day of questioning by the interrogators of the Delhi Police Special Cell, which busted the spot fixing scandal late Wednesday night after they arrested Sreesanth and his two Rajasthan Royals teammates Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila and 11 bookies, Sreesanth again broke down, police said.