The Justice Mukul Mudgal committee’s final report, submitted to the Supreme Court on Monday, has reportedly named a key member of India’s World Cup-winning team and touched upon his links with illegal bookmakers and match fixers.
The player is not a Team India regular anymore but was a big draw for his team in IPL last year, the season that ended with the arrest of three Rajasthan Royals players and a Chennai Super Kings official, Gurunath Meiyappan, on match-fixing and betting charges. Interestingly, he wasn’t a part of the Chennai or Jaipur franchises — the two teams under the scanner.
During their probe, the investigators stumbled upon a three-year-old tape that hinted at a ‘fix’ that went wrong. B B Mishra, the IPS officer appointed by the SC to help the Mudgal panel, summoned the player and questioned him.
Several players from the current Indian team have appeared before the investigators. It is learnt that the CSK players were asked about the role Meiyappan, son-in-law of ICC chairman N Srinivasan, played in decision making at the franchise. The report is expected to nail Meiyappan as his voice sample from the audio tape, where he is heard placing bets on IPL games involving CSK, have been authenticated by forensic reports.
If the Mudgal report indicts certain individuals, the court will have to take a call on whether to wait for the police to complete its probe and file its chargesheet, or issue some other orders on an urgent basis. The committee also comprised Solicitor General L Nageshwara Rao, senior advocate Niloy Duta, B B Mishra and ex-India captain Sourav Ganguly.
Numbers conceal identity
To maintain secrecy and avoid leaks, the Justice Mukul Mudgal committee’s final report has avoided taking any names. Instead, those probed by the panel are referred to by numbers. The key, which lists the names next to the corresponding numbers assigned to them, will only be given to the required judges.
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