July 14, 2015
New Delhi: The Supreme Court-appointed justice R.M. Lodha committee on Tuesday suspended two Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises—the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR)—for a period of two years with immediate effect.
July 14, 2015
New Delhi: The Supreme Court-appointed justice R.M. Lodha committee on Tuesday suspended two Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises—the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR)—for a period of two years with immediate effect.
In its verdict, the committee also suspended Gurunath Meiyappan, team principal of CSK, and Raj Kundra, former co-owner of Rajasthan Royals, for five years from association with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and for life from all cricket matches.
CSK has been accused of misleading the probe along with Meiyappan, who was indicted for allegedly betting on his own team during the sixth edition of the IPL. The Rajasthan Royals co-owner Raj Kundra was also alleged to have bet on IPL matches. Kundra has sold his stake in the IPL franchise. The scam itself came to the fore after three Royals cricketers were arrested in May 2013.
A three-member committee, comprising former Supreme Court chief justice Lodha and two former Supreme Court judges Ashok Bhan and R. Raveendran, was constituted by the apex court on 22 January, the day a two-member bench led by Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice I. Kalifulla announced its verdict on the IPL betting and spot-fixing case.
The mandate of the committee, as outlined by the Supreme Court, includes determining the “quantum of punishment to be imposed on Mr. Gurunath Meiyappan and Mr. Raj Kundra as also their respective franchisees/teams/owners of the teams…”
Besides, the committee was also tasked with examining the role of IPL chief operating officer (COO) Sundar Raman, “into his activities, and if found guilty, impose a suitable punishment upon him on behalf of the BCCI”.
The apex court also requested the Lodha committee to make necessary recommendations to the BCCI “with a view to preventing sporting frauds, conflict of interests, streamlining the working of the BCCI to make it more responsive to the expectations of the public at large and to bring transparency in practices and procedures followed by BCCI”. While appointing the panel, the Supreme Court gave the Lodha committee a six-month deadline to finish its work.
In its verdict, the Supreme Court also said that “the order passed by the committee will be final and binding upon the BCCI and the parties concerned.”
The committee on Tuesday announced its ruling regarding Meiyappan, Kundra and the two teams only. It will now focus its efforts on Sundar Raman and the recommendations to BCCI. It is yet to inform the Supreme Court as to when it deliver this ruling.
The IPL betting and spot-fixing case first came to light in 2013, when three cricketers from the Rajasthan Royals—S. Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan—were arrested by the Delhi Police for alleged acts of spot-fixing.
A week later, the Mumbai Police arrested CSK co-owner Meiyappan and Vindoo Dara Singh for betting-related activities. Meiyappan is the son-in-law of former BCCI president N. Srinivasan. Srinivasan, who is currently the chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC), is also the vice-president and managing director of India Cements, which owned the franchise at the time. In February this year, India Cements transferred the ownership of the CSK to a wholly-owned subsidiary Chennai Super Kings Ltd.
India Cements Ltd shares fell 5% to Rs 89.50 as of 1:32pm on BSE. The benchmark Sensex was down 0.1% to 27927.73 points.
Courtesy: PTI
