Vindoo, Meiyappan and two others walk out on bail

A Mumbai court Tuesday granted bail to Bollywood actor Vindoo Dara Singh Randhawa, Gurunath Meiyappan and two others in the IPL betting and spot fixing scam.

Vindo, Meiyappan, hawala operator Alpesh Patel and bookie Prem Taneja walked out of the police lock-up in the evening after their conditional bail formalities were completed, including furnishing bail bond of Rs.25,000 each.

As they came out, they were mobbed by a waiting media contingent but they declined to speak.

Granting them bail in the morning, Additional Metropolitan Magistrate M. N. Saleem imposed conditions like preventing them from leaving the country and reporting to the police station every alternate day.

The bail order came a day after they were sent to judicial custody Monday which the accused followed up with bail applications. However, the court had reserved its orders in the matter and posted them for hearing Tuesday.

Their lawyers argued that their clients' offences were of a bailable nature and they had already spent sufficient time in police custody.

Seeking bail, the lawyers -- S. Maneshinde representing Vindoo and A. Ponda appearing for Meiyappan -- promised that their clients would be available whenever required by police for investigation.

Ponda pointed out that Meiyappan, son-in-law of BCCI president N. Srinivasan, had responded to the police summons post-haste last fortnight and police had collected evidence required by way of phone tapping and other means even prior to his arrest.

Maneshinde contended that though the allegations against Vindoo pertain to contacting the bookies, it could not be said that he was involved in the larger conspiracy in the IPL betting and spot fixing.