IPL spot-fixing: Delhi cops search hotels where players stayed

A team of Delhi police Special Cell today conducted searches at various hotels in Mumbai in which the arrested IPL players stayed to collect evidence and to find out if there was a link between the spot-fixing case and the bookies who were arrested by the Mumbai police.

The Special Cell of Delhi police had arrested Sreesanth and his Rajasthan Royals teammates -- Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan -- from Mumbai on the night of May 15 for indulging in spot-fixing in at least three IPL matches as per arrangements with bookies with underworld connections abroad.

Sources in Mumbai police said that the Delhi team visited two five star hotels where the bookies and the players were staying at the time of their arrest. "The Delhi police team conducted searches at rooms in both the hotels to look for evidences," a city police officer said.

Police sources said that Delhi police officials would meet their Mumbai counterparts tomorrow and are likely to seek interrogation of Ramesh Vyas, who was arrested along with his two aides during a raid in Mumbai on May 14.

Vyas was the main person, who other than accepting the betting himself, used to aconnect between the bookies based in Pakistan and Dubai, it is alleged.

The police had said that more than 50 bookies took the service of Vyas. Out of them - Jupiter and Tikku-- were allegedly linked to the spot fixing racket busted by the Delhi police.

Meanwhile, the Mumbai police said that they were trying to decipher the information contained in the gadgets seized from Sreesanth's room in Mumbai. Police had recovered a laptop, an i-Pad and cell phones.

"We are expecting that we would get a major breakthrough in the case once the information contained in the gadgets is deciphered," a police source said.

Police also said that they were going through the CCTV images of the hotel.