MAY 26- Mumbai Police on Saturday sent BCCI chief N. Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan (photo) to police custody till May 29 in connection with the IPL betting and spot-fixing case.
Meiyappan was secretly presented in a local court where the police sought his custody for further questioning.
Meiyappan, who was arrested for betting in IPL matches, confessed to betting when he was confronted with arrested actor Vindu Dara Singh, through whom he allegedly placed the bets, police sources said.
Srinivasan also landed in Mumbai in the afternoon and is expected to meet his son-in-law.
Meiyappan’s lawyer reached the Mumbai Police Crime Branch only in the morning, after his client was arrested and cracked under intense police pressure.
Police probe has found that Vindu would bet on behalf of Meiyappan and other high-profile people and the net profit would be collected by Devendra Kothari, a bookie now wanted by the crime branch.
The money would come into Meiyappan’s account through hawala.
Meiyappan was also allegedly aware about Vindu helping bookies Pawan Jaipur and Sanjay Jaipur flee to Dubai.
According to police sources, Vindu, through his phone, made Pawan Jaipur speak to Meiyappan in Chennai.
Meiyappan was taken to Crime Branch headquarters after his arrival from Madurai by a chartered aircraft on Friday evening. His arrest was announced by Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Himanshu Roy at around midnight on Friday.
Roy initially quizzed Meiyappan for about two-and-a half hours. After his arrest, the 35-year-old was again subjected to questioning for several hours by Crime Branch team, police officials said.
“He was not as cooperative as we expected him to be. He was evasive about several questions,” police officials said on Saturday morning.
Meyippan had been summoned by Mumbai Police for questioning after his name cropped up in the betting scandal following arrest of actor Vindu Dara Singh on May 21.
Vindu, winner of reality show `Bigg Boss’ season 3 and son of late wrestler-actor Dara Singh, allegedly told police that Meiyappan lost Rs 1 crore through betting.
A few hours before the arrest, India Cements, a company run by Srnivasan, claimed Meiyappan was neither the CEO nor the owner of Chennai Super Kings but just an honorary member of the team’s management committee.
