Sreesanth denied bail, MCOCA provisions invoked

Police says MCOCA invoked as accused had facilitated illegal acts of Dawood Ibrahim and his aide Chhota Shakeel

A court here today extended till June 18 judicial custody of pacer S Sreesanth and 22 others in the IPL spot fixing case after Delhi Police informed it has invoked MCOCA provisions against them.

Police told the court that the provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act (MCOCA) have been invoked against all the 26 accused as they were allegedly facilitating the illegal acts of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his aide Chhota Shakeel.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Lokesh Kumar Sharma was also informed that MCOCA enables the police to seek further custodial interrogation of accused to unearth the organised syndicate in the case.

Out of 26 accused, IPL player Ankeet Chavan and Sreesanth's friend Abhishek Shukla are out on bail and co-accused Ashwani Aggarwal has been sent to Mumbai on a production warrant issued by a court there.

Instead of a magisterial court, Additional Sessions Judge Sanjeev Jain will now hear the bail applications of 16 accused in the case as MCOCA has been invoked.

The 16 accused, who have filed bail pleas include Sreesanth. The police's move of invoking MCOCA was opposed by the counsel for the accused, saying police does not have approval for it.

Advocate D P Singh, appearing for bookie Chandresh Patel argued that the accused, who was said to be having links with D-company has been given bail in Mumbai and here MCOCA has been invoked.

"How can players be accused of being a part of an organised crime syndicate," he argued.

The other 24 accused include Sreesanth, Rajasthan Royals player Ajit Chandila, former IPL player Amit Kumar Singh and former Ranji players Manoj Guddewar and Babu Rao Yadav.