Sreesanth bought Rs.1.95 lakh-worth apparel from spot-fixing money

Tainted cricketer S. Sreesanth went on a shopping spree with the money he earned from spot-fixing, buying apparel worth Rs.1.95 lakh for himself and a mobile phone costing over Rs.40,000 for his girlfriend, Delhi Police said Tuesday.

He wanted to quickly dispose of the cash which he got after fixing and apart from apparel and gifts spent it in parties, a police official told IANS.

"Sreesanth went to buy clothes from Diesel's showroom in Mumbai where he spent Rs.1.95 lakh. From the money which he got from spot-fixing, he also bought a Blackberry Z10 phone for his girl friend," the official added.

"The cricketer made cash payment for the clothes," said the official, adding that they also examined the store manager from where he purchased the apparel.

Some of the apparel bought by Sreesanth in Mumbai and the Blackberry Z10 phone have been seized, he said.

Sreesanth along with 10 co-accused was sent to police custody by a city court.

After Sreesanth told investigators about the purchases from the money he got for spot-fixing, he was taken to Jaipur Monday evening and brought back to Delhi Tuesday to be presented in a court.

"He gifted the mobile phone to his girlfriend. We recovered it at the instance of Sreesanth. We also went to the house where Sreesanth's girlfriend lived," the official said.

The official said Sreesanth made all these purchases before the 15th Indian Premier League (IPL) match.

On Monday police recovered Rs.20 lakh of suspected spot-fixing money from a house in Haryana's Palwal. The house belonged to a relative of accused Ajit Chandila, Sreesanth's IPL teammate from Rajasthan Royals.

Three Rajasthan team cricketers -- Sreesanth, Chandila and Ankeet Chavan - and over a dozen bookies have been arrested in the ongoing investigations into the spot-fixing scam busted last week.

Meanwhile, Bollywood actor Vindu Dara Singh was arrested by Mumbai police Tuesday for suspected links in the spot-fixing scam in the ongoing IPL-6. He was sent to police custody till May 24 by a court in Mumbai.