Brushing aside the Indian cricket board's suggestion that it set up an in-house inquiry into the IPL spot-fixing scam, the Supreme Court on Monday instead proposed an independent panel headed by former Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal, says a report in The Time of India.
An independent panel, the court felt, could carry out a detailed scrutiny of the alleged involvement of officials and players in the spot-fixing case that the police has linked to the international crime-terror syndicate run by the 1992 Mumbai blast accused Dawood Ibrahim.
An independent probe will again put the spotlight on BCCI president-elect N Srinivasan and the alleged involvement of his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan who has been associated with Srinivasan-controlled top IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings.
According to a report in the DNA, a bench of Justices AK Patnaik and Jagdish S Khehar said it wanted an independent panel that will not only investigate the IPL scandal but also give recommendations to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). It also turned down board’s plea that the proposed panel should find out if further probe is required into all the issues mentioned in the chargesheet filed by the Mumbai Police in the scandal.
The bench said the panel would conduct an independent inquiry into the allegations and submit its report to the Supreme Court. “Mumbai Police can go on its own. Let the panel make an independent inquiry and give report to the Supreme Court and suggest remedial measures,” it said.
Deliberating on a petition filed by the Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB), the court suggested a three-member panel, headed by former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana high court Mukul Mudgal to probe the IPL scandal. The court asked the counsel of the CAB, represented by senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, and the BCCI to come up with their suggestions and adjourned the case till Tuesday morning.
The other members of the three-member panel are senior advocate Nilay Dutta and Additional Solicitor General L Nageshwar Rao. Interestingly, Rao is also a cricketer.