Chandila tried to rope in two more players, say police

New Delhi - Cricketer Ajit Chandila had approached two more Indian Premier League (IPL) players to be part of the spot fixing after bookies asked him to rope in more people, police sources said Friday.

“During questioning, Chandila told police that he met bookies at Country Club in Manesar (adjoining Delhi) on April 6. In the meeting, the bookies asked him to rope in more players for spot-fixing. He gave two names and the bookies asked him to bring them to a party where the deal could be discussed,” police sources told IANS.

However, the two cricketers refused to attend the party.

Then Chandila contacted Ankeet Chavan to be part of the deal. Chavan agreed to it.

According to sources, the bookies – Chandresh Patel, Maman and Amit Singh – had decided to spot fix the IPL matches a month before they were to begin in April. Former Rajasthan Royals cricketer-turned bookie Amit Singh was on Friday suspended for spot-fixing by the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

During the meeting with Chandila, the three bookies fixed the rate of Rs.20 lakh for an over.

Delhi Police arrested Rajasthan Royals players S. Sreesanth, Chavan and Chandila from Mumbai for spot fixing. Police also arrested 11 bookies. All of them have been remanded in police custody for five days.

Sources said that Sreesanth was directly approached by cricketer-turned bookie Jiju Janardhanan. He is also a distant cousin of Sreesanth. Jiju had played for Kerala.