After Gurunath Meiyappan, now Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra?

Anil Narendra

Delhi Police made a startling revelation on Thursday that the owner of Rajasthan Royals was also involved in the spot fixing scam. Raj Kundra was not only involved in betting, but he also used to place bets on his own team. It may be mentioned that it is the second case, where an owner of a team himself is involved in betting. The earlier case relates to Gurunath Meiyappan, the owner-like CEO of the Chennai Superkings. When the controllers of IPL teams themselves are involved in betting, then it is useless to expect that they will keep an eye on cricketers of their teams, who could be partners in the game of betting. If the claims of the Delhi Police are to be believed, then both husband and wife – Raj Kundra and his actress wife Shilpa Shetty used to place bets. Making this claim on Wednesday after interrogation of Raj Kundra and his friend, Umesh Goenka, the Police saidthat Raj Kundra was in direct contact with seven bookies, whereas he used to maintain contacts with other six through his fried Umesh. Raj Kundra has lost about three crore rupees on betting on IPL matches in three years. He himself told about this to the Police during the interrogation. He also stated that he often used to bet on his own team. After accepting about betting, Raj Kundra is likely to be arrested. The Police investigation has revealed that born in London, Raj Kundra is an NRI businessman and his forefathers belonged to Punjab. He is an old addict to betting in matches. Earlier, he has been betting on local and national and international matches being played in Britain. While living in London, Raj used to place bets through his business partner Umesh Goenka. According to Delhi Police, Shilpa Shetty also placed bet in a match between Delhi-Kolkata. The Police are, however, saying that they have no proof against Kundra, on the basis of which he could be arrested. Under the Gambling Act, the Police must have proof in the form of recovery etc., which they do not have, Though the Police is not discounting the possibility of his arrest in near future. It was after the interrogation of Siddharth Trivedi that the names of Raj Kundra and his partner Umesh Goekna came to light in the spot fixing scam. The Special Cell of the Delhi Police has made Siddharth Triwedi, as a prosecution witness. Unfortunately, the facr is that neither the team owners nor the BCCI kept an eye on the players. It appears as if the BCCI is least concerned whether its rules are being followed by various teams or not. Can the BCCI vouch that none other owner except these two is involved in such scam? In fact, after so much noise about such malpractices in the matches, the BCCI has not taken any step on its own in this direction, which could have salvaged its waning credibility. The way, things have been managed after the resignation of its President; its credibility has gone for further beatings. It is, however, difficult to say at present, how deep are the roots of this spot fixing, but revelation of involvement of such a vast number of  people in it, has indicated how deep rooted and grave this conspiracy is. Although betting is not a crime as serious as the spot fixing is, yet it cannot be accepted that the owners-organizers of the IPL teams should play the game of betting and even place bets on the performance of their own teams. The sport turning into a business, is putting a question mark on the credibility of the game of cricket. BCCI will have not only to uphold the credibility of IPL, but also of itself and the country. Unfortunately, there appears to be no indication of this.