Delhi Police hunting for Dawood, Shakeel

NEW DELHI, JUL 31 -
The Delhi Police is hunting for fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim, his aide Chhota Shakeel and eight bookies, three of them in Pakistan, in connection with the spot fixing scandal in Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket matches, an official said Tuesday.

S.N. Srivastava, special commissioner of police (special cell), said: "Apart from Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel, we are still hunting for eight bookies. Three of them -- identified as Javed Chotani, Salman and Ahtesaam -- are Pakistan-based, while five belong to different cities of India."

"We have a man as witness who has identified Dawood's voice in two separate telephonic conversations," said Srivastava.

After confirming Dawood's link in the fixing scandal, we managed to get a non-bailable warrant against him and Shakeel from a court in Delhi, he said.

In a charge sheet filed in a Delhi court Tuesday, we have referred to about 12 voice samples as proof, along with phone conversations of accused and their cell phone ownership documents along with other evidence, he said.

Chotani was the mediator between Dawood and other bookies as he was in constant touch with the don, added the officer.

Bookie Ashwini Aggarwal, also known as Tinku Mandi, was named in the charge sheet as the main link between Indian bookies and the underworld, he said.

"Tinku Mandi and Chotani were in constant touch with Dawood. They were talking to Sunil Bhatia and Ramesh Vyas as mediator. Bhatia and Vyas were working as hawala operators," said Srivastava.

Police filed a 6,000-page charge sheet, along with a summary of 577 pages, in court in the IPL-6 spot fixing case.

The formal set of charges named 39 accused, including Dawood, Shakeel and Rajasthan Royals cricketer S. Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, in the scandal unearthed in May.

"Till now, 29 people have been arrested in the IPL spot fixing case. Twenty-one of them are on bail, while eight are in judicial custody. Now we are hunting 10 more accused whose named we have mentioned in the charge sheet," said Srivastava.

According to Srivastava, they have mentioned Dawood's name in the first column of the charge sheet which has annexures that include transcripts of phone conversations, voice sample reports, forensic reports and confessional statements.

Police also file a plea in court to cancel the bail of 21 accused, including Sreesanth and Chavan.

Sreesanth, Chavan and Chandila were arrested by Delhi Police from Mumbai May 16. The police later arrested 26 more accused. While Sreesanth and Chavan are out on bail along with 19 other accused, Chandila is still in Tihar jail with eight others.

Srivastava said they had recorded the statements of seven accused -- including bookie Ramesh Vyas, Tinku Mandi, Firoz, Sunil Bhatia and Deepak -- before a magistrate.

Police have named 168 prosecution witnesses, including former cricket board secretary Sanjay Jagdale, IPL CEO Sundar Raman, Rajasthan Royals captain Rahul Dravid and the team management.

The police have also attached the statements of Sidharth Trivedi and Harmeet Singh, both Rajasthan Royals cricketers, who said that bookies had approached them for spotfixing.

But the name of Rajasthan Royals co-owner Raj Kundra and his wife Shilpa Shetty had not been mentioned in the charge sheet as they were not found to be involved in fixing.

Srivastava said Vyas told them during interrogation that they use a code 'Ek ka note 51 k 390777' for the transfer of hawala money.

"Vyas was told to show good conduct towards 'master', Salmaan, and 'doctor', Chotani. He was also threatened by the underworld," said the officer.

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